


THE NEW CANAAN RUN

by femmefan1946



Series: THE NEW CANAAN RUN [1]
Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: F/M, Family, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 06:14:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4169046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femmefan1946/pseuds/femmefan1946
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twelve years after Miranda, life is getting better for the crew. <br/>Now working with Zoe's brother Perseus Alleyne, they set out on the Traders' Guild New Canaan Run, a trip around the Verse that will take them many months to complete. <br/>Relationships have changed. <br/>Zoe has been reunited with her daughter Emma, now eleven. Simon and Kaylee split when he decided that his true attraction was to men. Inara returned to the Madrassa, her 'crimes' forgiven, to live out the rest of her life. She died a few years earlier. Mal and Kaylee married, and have two children, Derrial (8) and BabyGirl (one).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. HASTUR MOON

FIRST LEG:

PERSEPHONE TO BEAUMONDE AND HASTUR MOON

Insystem: Raw bulk salt from Persephone to Renao Moon. Bulky and low value. Inland bound for a food processing factory (not Blue Moon)  
Outbound from Renao- Processed salt for Ramses Ahaj on Persephone.

TIME:   
Persephone to Renao Moon: Overnight  
Persphone to Beaumonde/Hastur Moon: Nine weeks  
Hastur Moon to Beaumonde: Overnight

 

'What's the route?'  
'It's the Traders' Guild New Canaan Run. Pretty straight forward, a few side trips to moons to pick up or drop off, all pre-arranged, all legal. The full run takes sixty-three weeks , are you sure you want to take all the kids with you?' asked Perseus Alleyne.  
'For a kid that's a lifetime, and BabyGirl is still nursing,' Kaylee pointed out ' If she don't go, I don't go. An you'll hafta find a mechanic.'  
'But Emma and Derry are in school. They could live here, not miss any classtime.'  
'We're takin the kids,' said Mal. 'No point in havin a family if they're never around.'  
'That's the way of it , brother.' said Zoe.  
'All right. there are no dangerous cargoes set up , unless you pick up anything on your way. Strictly legal.’  
'Legal's good with kids aboard. You still okay with us doing some side work as we go?  
'The company has to come first, every time.'  
'Goes without sayin.'  
'And if you get pinched for any other cargo, you're on your own.'  
'Again, kids on board. We ain't takin chances.'  
'I can spot you credit if you find a good deal along the way. That's personal credit, not company.'  
'We got some cashy money put aside, reckon to use that first. Cash goes further than credit sometimes.'  
'Less traceable too.'  
'Yeah. Here's what we do need. We got a fair stake in Alliance scrip. We've been changing it for coin, but the bankers watch that. You got a stash of legal-type coin that you can change for legal scrip?'  
'My goodness, Mal. You'd think you don't want to carry money with tracing and tracking built in,' Perse smiled.   
Mal smiled back, thinly.'What can I say, Perse. I'm taken up coin collectin as a hobby. I even like the old Independent coin.'  
'I actually have a fair bid of Rim coin. And mostly platinum and gold.'  
'Works.'


	2. RENAO MOON

SECOND LEG: PERSEPHONE TO RENAO

Persephone to Renao Moon: Overnight

Outbound from Renao- Raw bulk salt from Renao Moon. Bulky and low value. Inland bound for a food processing factory

 

The first part of the New Canaan Run turned out to be a shuttle job from Persephone's Renao Moon, bringing raw salt from Renao's oceans to Ramses Aghaj.

The cargo hold was brimful of sacks, up to the catwalks.

'Just be sure to keep it dry,' warned the warehouse manager,'We'd be unhappy about any short weight.'

'Don't worry, ' said Kaylee, 'I don't wan my girl corrodin' away from salt poisoning.'

 

There was only one problem on the run, when Emma, River and Derry were playing on the salt stacks. Derry slipped and fell five metres to the metal floor of the bay tearing a sack in the process.

Simon insisted on a full concussion protocol and his father made him sweep up the spilled salt. His mother was distraught, unsure whether the potential damage to her son was more important than the potential damage to Serenity.

The raw salt cargo was delivered to Persephone's Nemecek Docks, the closest ones to Ramses Ahaj where there was a processing plant that was not part of the Blue Sun corporate conglomerate,The plant paid more for cargo than Blue Sun would, than Blue Sun had to, and which purchased smaller quantities.

Dried algae from Beaumonde was loaded for delivery to Silverhold where it would be processed into protein bars for travellers and homesteaders. Then purified salt, along with industrial chemicals that were a valuable byproduct of the refining, were loaded, in waterproof unbreakable celluloid boxes for shipping, on the first real leg of the New Canaan Run.


	4. HASTUR'S MOON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Washburne Clan.

THIRD LEG :  BEAUMONDE/ HASTUR'S MOON  
  
Persphone to Beaumonde/Hastur Moon: Nine weeks  
Inbound cargo : Semi-processed salt for Ramses Ahaj on Persephone. Dried algae bound for processing plants on Silverhold.  
  
Outbound cargo- dried algae for Silverhold  
                          --refined salt, gold, platinum, lithium  
  
  
  
Emma was excited about the third leg of the New Canaan Run, but her mother dreaded it.   
The crew have visited Beaumonde fairly often. On such a busy manufacturing centre, it was easy for small ships to get overlooked and for cargoes that had questionable provenance to be bought and sold.  
Beaumonde was also second only to Dyton Colony for the manufacture of counterfeit goods, the main difference being that the little craftsmen of Dyton Colony was known for excellent copies, even improving on the originals,  while Beaumonde paid much less attention to quality control. Only Dyton Colony's criminal heritage, originally settled as a prison planet,  held it back from realizing an honoured place as a manufacturer.   
'Beaumonde products are dangerous,' Simon told Kaylee, 'People buy them for the low price without realizing that not just the brand labels are faked, so are the safety inspection labels. We had a horrible case at MedAcad. A stockman had ordered cheap batteries for one of the diagnostic machines and when it powered up, it exploded, killing the patient inside.'  
'Geez.'  
'The stockman though he was going to get a commendation for finding such a good deal. Those batteries are very expensive,normally a few hundred each. Instead he got fired and just missed getting prosecuted.  
'And the hospital had to replace the diagnostician which was nearly twenty thousand and pay compensation to the family.'  
'I guess we'll all be goin to Hastur Moon for Emma and Zoe,' Kaylee said.  
'Why?'  
'It as Wash' home world. He hated it. Sky so polluted he never saw the stars. He said he become a pilot just for that.'  
'Well, that will be nice for Emma to meet her grandparents? Or cousins?'  
'Zoe doesn't seem too happy. She says Wash was the only one in the family with a sense of humour'  
'Zoe?Our stone-faced warrior?'  
'I think she meant something else. She and Wash stopped there once, fore I joined the crew, an I gather it did not go well.'  
  
Kaylee had gathered right.  
  
C.E. 2512  
  
Zoe watched as the shock on the faces of her new in-laws turned to anger and disgust.   
'Somethin you forget to tell me, husband?' she said.   
'No, I think I've introduced you to everyone. Mom, Dad, one sister , two brothers, Memaw. That's the lot.'  
Memaw, Wash' grandmother, peered up at the the tall woman. 'What's this doin here? We don't need no coloured round here.'  
Wash' father spoke, 'Hoban sez he married it.'  
'Why? You can hire better at the Sugar Sally, ' sneered a brother.  
'Zoe, my WIFE, is the First Mate on the spaceship I pilot, SHE's a decorated war veteran and the most extraordinary, beautiful and intelligent WOMAN I've ever met.' sotto voce, ' And she can kill any of you with her pinky; which I am thinking might be a good idea.'  
'You ain't married to that here.' said his father,'There's laws.'  
 'No there ain't. Not since the Alliance took control of the government. Our marriage is a legal here as on Beaumonde or Londinium or even Ariel.'  
'What's Ariel?' asked a child's voice. His mother hushed him.   
'Go back to your room. Ain't nowhere.'  
'That lady's pretty,' the small boy said. His mother, Wash's sister, slapped him.'Your bed, now! And no dinner!'  
'Well, I've enjoyed all the sweetness and light of our visit. Lovely to see you all again. Not so great to hear you spewing up the vitriol an all. We'll send a Christmas card and of course we expect to provide at least half a dozen birth announcements as time goes on.  
Wash grabbed Zoe's arm and marched out of the cramped house. He glanced back.  
The front door was firmly shut behind them, but in an upstairs window a blonde head peered out, blue eyes round with wonder.   
  
Wash waved at his nephew and smiled. Zoe look up to see the boy and blew him a kiss. He caught it and laughing rubbed it on his face.   
'One down, ' said Wash 'Not just the air that's filthy here. You okay, sweetheart?'  
'Stunned. That ain't nothing I've ever seen before. What were they objectin to?'  
  
2529 C.E.   
There had been no Christmas cards and , what with the hospital and the prison and all, Emma's birth announcement had also gone by the board.   
But Emma had met her Uncle Acibides' family, who were all adults, and Kaylee's nephews and nieces , a torrent of kids fromm newborn to Academy age, who amused and terrorized their home town on ……….. Redheaded BabyGirl fit in with the toddlers and Derry was welcomed as a leader by his age cohort whenever they were dirtside.  
Emma was accepted as family by the Fryes and hung with a quiet studious group of girls who were never suspected as the brains behind outrageous pranks like the flaming haybales that rolled downhill one clear stray night from the Frye homestead, stopping just in front of the church.  
'It was stopping it exactly there that was the hard part, Aunt River, Thank you for confirming our maths.'  
'I burn the haybale at both ends  
It will not last the night  
But oh my friends and ah my foes  
It makes a lovely light. ' River grinned.   
  
Knowing such good family times, Emma had become anxious to meet her legendary father's family.   
  
'Seven hundred years of hatefulness. Hard to figure anyone could hold on that long.' Kaylee said.  
  
'Religions do. Christians been around for twenty five hundred, Buddhists for three thousand, Mithrans bout the same.' Zoe said.' Guess if you want to be special you can find others who wanna be special too.'  
'But because you have brown skin? That's stupid, your daddy was as blond as Wash. My Granny Lee could've stepped out of an old Hong Kong action flick.  
'David's real proud of his Algonquin ancestors and his family on Turtle Island Moon keep their old Longhouse traditions.  
Maybe it's because the Chens are respected. They sent all the kids to Academy and they all got qualifications. Wash' famly,,,'  
'Kinda hard to know your tradition is trailer trash.'  
'Zoe!'  
'Lotta truthiness in that though. They all work, but Wash said they thought he was nuts to want to leave Hastur Moon and the salt factory.'  
'Want me and the captn to come with?'  
'No. We'll face them ourselves. Maybe the kids will be okay.'  
  
  
Emma was bouncing with excitement as they approached the cluster of prefab houses with the Washburne name on the mailbox.  The front yard was decorated with flagpoles with an Alliance flagand two banners one red,  with a diagonal white cross printed with blue stars and another in red and black centred by the Buddhist symbol of good luck. Less decorative wre the remnants of various land vehicles parked, permanently and rotting in the harsh atmosphere of the industrial moon.

  
Two small girls were playing tea parties in the cab of one of these a goggled, eyes round, as they approached.  
'I'm looking for Hoban Washburne and his wife. Could you girls tell him Hoban Junior's widow's here to see them?' The girls didn't move.

  
A boy, perhaps eighteen, with blond spiky hair that twisted Zoe's heart, came out on the porch. 'Teenie, Myonee, get Gramps and Gran, quick now!' The girls ran back to a house two doors down.  
'I remember you, ' the boy said.'YOu came the Uncle Hobie when I was real little. I thought you were pretty. But you're really beautiful.'  
'Umm. Thank you.'  
'Did I say that out loud?' he had the same grin as his uncle too. Zoe had to fight back tears.  
'This is Emma. She's Wash,… Hoban Junior's daughter. Born after… after he was killed.'  
Hi, Emma, I guess we're cousins. My name is Hosea Washburne Biddlington. Call me Burne, please, please call me Burne.' That goofy grin again.  
  
Emma stepped forward and offered her hand to her cousin. She shook it solemnly.   
'You're about eleven, then? You'll be writing your Six soon, I guess.'  
Emma said proudly, 'I passed my Six last year. Uncle Simon thinks I'll write may Twelve by the time I'm fourteen.'  
'I'm suppose the write my Twelve this year, but then I'm supposed to get work and help the family.'  
  
The little girls came running back, followed more slowly by an older couple. Both were blonde and blue-eyed, a rarity in a Verse where the dominant brown eye genes were widespread.  
They did not look happy to see Zoe, tall and straight in her brown leather duster, and when Burne turned, revealing her fair-haired daughter their faces turned to stone.  
  
Zoe sighed. 'Mr, and Mrs. Washburne, we met some time back when my Wash brought me to to be introduced. I'm Zoe Washburne and this is our girl Emma Washburne.'  
The older couple were both stooped and frail, but their glare was as firry as the flares that like Hastur Moon's sky as they burned off manufacturing waste.  
'Ti'm glass to find you in good health,' Zoe tried again. She was amazed that they were even alive. They had to be at least 80 and Rim dwellers didn't often survive their hard lives past sixty. Zoe noticed Wash' mother was missing most of her left hand.  
'Pert usr Wash never did send the Christmas cards he promised. He never was much for wing I know I sent a letter 'bout his death and a capture of his memorial stone.'  
Did his father's face changee at that?  
'I wasn't able to send you notice about Emman, on account of being grabbed from the hospital after she was born. n the crew was kinda busy themselves with the Second Revolution.  
'Bit Emma wanted to meet her father's family so, here we are. Pay your respects, baby, and I guess we'll be going.'  
Emma looked confused by the silence of her grandparents. The Alleyne cousins, all twenty something, treated her like a beloved pet and she was a definite force in the Frye troop. She made a bow to her grandparents.   
'我很荣幸能满足我敬爱的父亲的父母。' she said.  
Her grandfather broke his silence. 'Speak white! If a mongrel can talk proper.'  
Burne stepped between his grandfather and his young cousin. 'C'mon grampus, she's just a little girl.  And her greeting was very proper and polite.'  
'Where'd you learn that heathen tongue, lad? What're they pushin at you in that school?'  
'Of course we learn Chinese, grampus. We'll need it if we're gonna do anything sides run some machine until we die.' It was obvious that this was a long running argument.   
Zoe interrupted. 'It's been interesting meeting y'all again. Reckon me and Emma will be getting home to Serenity now.'  
Burne spoke up. 'Let me walk with you, Aunt Zoe. I need to get away for a while and the road can be dangerous.'  
  
Zoe's hand strayed to her holster. 'I'll … sure, son, pleased to have the company. Mr. Washburne, Mrs. Washburne. I doubt we'll ever meet again.' She spun on her bootheel and. pulling Emma's hand, marched back through the cluttered yard to the road.   
  
Looking down at her daughter's devastated face, she picked the lanky child up as if she were a tired toddler, hugged her close.  
'Yeah, sorry about all that,' said Burne.  
Zoe just looked at him.  
'They're old and… Nah, there ain't no excuse. They're just…'  
The trio trudge back up the road to the town, passing family compounds, each fenced away from the next. The fences varied, some high bamboo stakes, some chainlink, one barbed wire with Danger-Electric labels,even one neat white picket fence backed by a wide flowerbed on either side and a rose trellised gate.   
'Haha,' said Burne, noticing Zoe's surprise at the pretty setting in this tough neighbourhood.  
Zoe looked at him questioningly.  
'There's a haha, a deep ditch hidden by the flowers. and the gate is electrified. The Wallace' ain't the most welcoming folks.'  
Zoe started to laugh at the ridiculousness of the statement after her treatment by her husband's parents.  
Burne grinned again. 'They don't like me much either. I went to the town for schooling, stead of stain home. And I'd want to leave, see the Verse, like Uncle Hobie.'  
'Wash, ' said Zoe, ' We all called him Wash.'  
'I can carry Emma for  bit if you like.'  
'No, we're fine. But thank you. For everything.'  
The left the residential  area behind and were passing through a factory district. The air was fouler than usual even for Hastur Moon.  
'Fertilizer.' explained Burne.' And that's the refinery that smells all acid.' The refinery had prisonlike fencing. with guard towers.  
'What do they refine?''Lots of stuff in sea salt, but mostly the gold.Other rare earths too. Precious stuff. I looked into workin there, but daily cavity searches aren't my idea of fun. I mean, they don't even buy you dinner and a show first.'  
Zoe laughed again.' So what will you do when you leave school? Any good places to work?'  
'They all stink. Bad conditions and worse pay. Nobody comes here, so they're always hiring, but I guess most families are like mine.'  
'Mmmm?''  
'You leave school as soon as possible, start paying back your common up, get married, raise a bundle o kids, go into debt tp build a house for 'em with a mortgage from the factory, or rent from the company. And don't think about anything better.' He smiled grimly,' It's the best kind of life y'know? With the best kind of people. Guarding the gene pool/'  
'Gene pool?'  
'The family is big on blondes and gingers. Didja notice? These are recessive genes, so the family is trying to keep our colouring from dying out.'  
Zoe stroked Emma's yellow dreads. 'My daddy and Emma's daddy both had yellow hair. Guess that's where she gets it.'  
'She's beautiful, like her mamma.'  
Emma struggled out of her mother's arms . Once on the ground, she took her cousin's hand.  
  



	5. BEGGAR'S TIN MOON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River goes on a date. Hijinks ensue.

FOURTH LEG: BEGGAR'S TIN MOON off SILVERHOLD  
  
Beaumonde to Silverhold: Eleven weeks  
Silverhold to Beggar's Tin Moon: Overnight  
  
Inbound cargo-- -- dried algae for Silverhold  
Outbound cargo--linen thread for Silverhold   
  
  
  
Beggar's Tin was a barren world. Gravity was noticeably lower than normal, which meant less strain on workers, although mass of course was unaffected.   
As usual Mal met up with his contact in a dive bar. He ordered beer for himself, River and Zoe, noticing that among the choices was Mudder's Milk, imported from Higgin's Moon. The waitress wore a scarlet cheong-sam, her hair elaborately styled and held in place with long sticks.  
'She's a fancy piece for a place like this,' Mal remarked.  
'Less there than meets the eye,' murmured River. 'Are there snacks?'  
'You're a bottomless pit these days, Tross. Not sure I'd trust the kitchen here though.'  
Zoe's eyes narrowed,'Think that's our contact, sir?'  
A short, athletically built man, stood in the doorway, looking about. River noticed the waitress indicated the crew with a subtle motion of her chin.  
'Captain Reynolds?' he asked. If Mal cared about dress he would've envied the man's shantung silk suit, cut to emphasize his broad chest.   
'Mr. Kelly? ' The men shook. 'My first mate Zoe Washburne and pilot River Tam.'  
The beer arrived and Kelly ordered a bottled Tsing Tao. The waitress opened it at the table and ignoring the offered glass, Kelly wiped the mouth of the  bottle with a pristine white linen handkerchief.  
  
‘Here's to successful negotiations!' he said and drank deep.  
River nodded and took a small sip of her draft. Mal and Zoe followed her lead.   
'You looking to move some mining by-products off world, I understand, Mr. Kelly?' asked Zoe.  
Kelly looked mildly surprised that the First Mate had begun rather than the Captain.  
'Yes, nothing too bulky, but requires secure handling.'  
'And where do we deliver to?'  
'That would be Hera , for the luxury trade there.'  
'We have several stops before Hera. This New Canaan Run, we have strictly legal cargoes set up outbound and inbound from Silverhold to Harvest to New Canaan before we're scheduled for Hera.'  
'Understood, My cargo won't go bad during the trip.' He gave a convincingly sincere grin, his excellent teeth gleaming white in his dark brown face.  
'Guns?' asked Mal suddenly.   
'No! No, too dangerous. Easy to buy here and Silverhold is known for quality weaponry. Easy to sell on, but even the small gunsmiths have to install trackers on their product. Alliance is death on cheaters.'  
'Death by firing squad,' River said. 'Using the smuggler's own guns.'  
'You know about that part, Ms. Tam? Exactly'  
'So we'd be carryin?' Zoe asked.  
'Gold bullion. Not as dangerous. At worst , the bullion is confiscated. I never hear of any action against the smugglers.'  
'Transport company,' put in Mal.  
Kelly gave a thin smile. 'I suspect that the confiscated pretty never goes to the government. Fed officers may look on such untraceable cargoes as part of their pensionable time.'  
'Sounds like the risky part is all on us though. Do we get paid upfront? '  
'On delivery. No point in paying someone not to deliver.'  
Mal bristled, but Zoe spoke calmly. '30% mid-rate up front and 10% on delivery or not for us. We got a legal cargo to deliver and kids on board. Pay ain't good enough against the risk other.'  
'All that I knew. Reason I want you. You even look as respectable as any tramp ship out here can. ' He seemed oblivious to Mal's annoyance at the slur on his ship.   
'I know you already have bullion cargo. Mine wouldn't set off any detectors.'  
'True.'  
'How about 15% of mid-rate upfront and 5 % of mid-rate on arrival?'  
'How about 25% upfront, 5% arrival? There are four stops between Silverhold and Hera. We could get inspected at any stop. Not to mention Black stops by the Navy.'  
'Thirty percent is steep.  I'd have to see where you were stashing it.'  
'No,' said Mal.'Them hidey-holes is our bread and butter. Well, not so much anymore, but definitely the jam.'   
'Apricot.' said River.  
Kelly stared at her.   
'She likes apricot jam best,' explained Zoe.  
Kelly looked at the girl. Her reason for being with them was unclear. She was looking around, not watchfully like a bodyguard, but more vaguely. Her eyes kept returning to the waitress. Maybe having Gertrude at the meetup was a mistake. He sighed theatrically.  
'I understand about the secure stowage. Let that go. Make it 10 percent upfront and 10 % on arrival. And we can both hope the exchange is in our favour.'  
River was drawing on the sticky table with beer drippings. She pressed her foot against Zoe's boot.   
'Works.'  
Kelly sighed.'That may be my best bet. I do have to get this cargo off-planet ay-sap. It's pretty warm, dong ma?'  
'We'll be in touch. No cortex, reckon. Where does your pretty piece usually hang out?' Zoe indicated the elegant waitress.  
'Ah. Gertrude. I see the beginning of our problem. You can leave a message at the Pink Kitten Pachinko Parlour on Elgin Boulevard. On paper and addressed to Gertrude Lysenko.'  
The crew began to rise and Kelly was immediately behind River, pulling out her chair. 'It was good to meet you all, especially you, Ms. Tam. I hope we will see each other again, perhaps socially?'  
River gave him a flat look.'You have our contact. Next time though, no roofies.'  
Kelly watched open-mouthed as the three left the bar.  
  
'That was why you weren't drinkin?  You can taste a persuader?' asked Mal.  
'No, I could hear the server. She knew what was in them. Just enough to make you amenable. Stronger effect on a smaller person.'  
'Like you,' said Zoe.  
'And you're still willin to let him call?' asked Mal.  
River shrugged. 'There's been a distinct lack of tasty in my life lately.'  
'We gotta keep this girl away from Jayne, sir.'  
'Be careful, mei mei,' said Mal. 'That Kelly don't have a clean heart.'  
  
  
  
  
Kelly dropped off his cargo in person. A cheerful young woman was sitting outside, trolling for passengers while nursing her baby. River was playing tag with a motley bunch of spacer children including a tall preteen with more than a passing resemblance to the Amazon first mate.  
'Small cargo for Captain Reynolds.'  
'You must be Mr. Kelly,' the pretty mother smiled. 'Derry, get someone to help the mister here.'  
A young boy, with a fringe of brown hair hanging in his bright blue eyes dashed up the ramp.  
'You're not travelling' with us?' the woman asked.  
'Thank you , no. I have a business to run here. This is just a small export that needed special handling.'  
River and the tall girl wandered over. The younger girl was nearly his height. Miss Tam was a good 10 cm. taller.   
'Miss Tam. I'm so pleased to see you again.'  
River looked at him solemnly.  
'Are you leaving today?'  
'We were,' answered Kaylee.' But there was an accident on the mono between the mill and here. We only got half of our cargo. Rest arrives late tonight, more likely tomorra morning.'  
A large man descended the ramp. 'This all? Could have posted it.' He grabbed the rolling case from Kelly and tramped back up the ramp.  
Kelly's eyes followed him.  
'Wanted to be tasting,' said River. 'But he went hungry.'  
Kaylee smiled, 'Jayne thought the delay meant he could have shore leave when the spools were held up. Mal made him stay with me and the kids.'  
Kelly took another look at Miss Tam. In spite of her clear brow and dark hair, she was definitely in her twenties, even late twenties. Kaylee wasn't much older. Why was she classed with the kids? There was an oddness to her that he found fascinating.   
  
  
Emma called over the ship comm. 'We gotta wave for  you, Auntie River.'  
'I'll take it in my bunk.'  
  
As the crew gathered for supper, River made her entrance. She wore her usual black catsuit, but her hair was intricately dressed and the sparkling ornaments  matched her ear studs. She carried a shiny woven metal shoulder purse. A little  mascara and some cheek and lip colour enhanced her pale beauty.   
'You're so audrey,' breathed Emma.  
'Do you have your comm? And your locator? ' demanded Mal.  
'Yes, Captain Daddy, and I will be home before pumpkin hour.'  
  
The entry signal by the cargo bay door sounded. Derry dashed off and brought Mike Kelly, who looked slightly aghast at  eight faces checking him over.   
'Auntie, he says he's here for you,' announced Derry.  
'A pleasure to meet you again, Captain, Ms. Washburne.'  
Kaylee smiled at him, 'I'm Kaylee and these are my Beege and Derry. Emma is Zoe's girl an the big guy is Jayne.'  
Jayne, as he usually did when meeting River's suitors, growled.   
Kelly tried to regain his equilibrium. What was meant to be a pleasant smile turned into a shit-eating grin when Mal made a sound similar to Jayne's.   
'Any plans?' he demanded.  
'I thought we'd go to the theatre. There's a play, 'Never Say Never' at the Gaiety or the Sihnon Ballet has a production of 'The White-Haired Girl'.'  
'Ballet.' said River.  
  
[The White Haired Girl - Ballet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdhZCNahwjg)  
  
'We have time for a bite before the theatre if  you don't mind a dumpling shop, I'll reserve seats on our way. We can have a proper dinner after if you're not tired.'  
'Don't be late, Tross,' said the captain, 'We need our pilot for take off tomorra.'  
'Pumpkins, Captain Daddy.'  
  
Kelly watched in amazement as River scooped up her  twentieth dumpling . Her grace and dainty manners were like those of a Core lady, but her appetite was that of a half-starved Rim orphan. Her pink tongue licked around her full lips sensually, as if dumplings were the best thing she'd ever tasted. She raised the bowl to those lips and drank the broth the dumplings had been served in, first adding chili garlic sauce to the bland soup.   
'Garlic keeps away vampires,' she told Kelly seriously.' Chili warms the blood.'  
'Those would work against each other wouldn't they?' Kelly asked. 'Wouldn't vampires prefer warm blood to cold?'  
'Cold blood clots.'  
Kelly expected her to continue, but she smiled brightly.'Let's go watch the girl kill the oppressors!'  
  
[The White Haired Girl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvT_iBRNpiQ)  
  
River was entranced by the ballet, which she had a blurry memory of seeing as a child on Osiris.  
'She doesn't stop.' she said.  
'Having her sweetheart find her gives her a happy ending.'  
'Having her sweetheart and the Eighth Army find her.'  
'Don't you think her personal story would be enough?'  
'The captain needed an army, but it wasn't big enough. He kept moving so the wicked landlord wouldn't kill him.'  
'That why he turned down my cargo?'  
'Tip. Don't try to roofie a potential client.'  
'He noticed that ,eh?' Kelly laughed with no trace of remorse.' Just a touch to make clients more amenable.'  
'Miss Manners would disagree.'  
'Business-- nothing personal, but this evening is personal . Are you enjoying it?'  
'Yes. The dumplings were plump, the dancers soared, the girl vanquished the evil doer. All satisfactory so far.'  
'I promised you a proper dinner.'  
'Not hungry. Daddy wants me home by midnight.'  
'We have about an hour. Perhaps we could walk back?'  
'Will there be snacks on the way?'  
'Of course, but I thought you weren't hungry?'  
'Not now, but we may need our stamina.'  
'I guess you don't get much exercise on a boat.'  
She gave him her 'boob' look.   
  
They visited a couple of food trucks as they walked back to Serenity, following brightly lit streets to the even more brilliantly lit dockyards.   
At the cargo bay door, they were sharing a potato, spiral cut and skewered, deep-fried and heavily salted.  
Having cleaned her own fingers before entering the entry code, River started licking Kelly's fingers clean of salt.  He leaned in and River looked surprised.  
'No kiss goodnight?' he asked.  
'Come in.'  
'So your Daddy can growl at me again?'  
'So we can fuck.'  
Kelly was amused at the rough language in River's cultured Core accent, but he followed her willingly into the cargo bay and watched as she locked the door after herself. 'Don't let the kidnappers in again, ' she explained.   
'Again?'  
But she was pulling him by the hand up the companionway and into a narrow corridor lined with doors. The end door opened to her touch and she climbed down a narrow ladder. Kelly followed, and found River halfway out of her jumpsuit. He stopped on the ladder. For once his head was higher than hers, and he reached out to her nape and pulled her face into a kiss. She moved her hand over his broad chest, playing with the tie fastenings. His hand pulled the clips from her hair and it cascaded down her back. 'Mmmm.' he said.'You taste like sugar and hoisin and grease and vinegar and pepper.'  
'Like barbecue duck?'  
'My favourite food.' he kissed her again, then moved his lips to her clavicle.' And here you taste like salt and rosewater.'  
He supported himself on her shoulder while he stepped down to the floor, leaving his eyes once again on a level with her mouth.'You have the most beautiful lips.' He pushed himself up to hold her upper lip lightly between his teeth. She bent to him and breathed heavily.   
He had both hands free now, and pushed her catsuit off her shoulders. River stepped back and sat on the bed. The scarlet brocade on the duvet made her pale skin glow in the dim light of the bunk. He still stood, helping her out of the catsuit and admiring her slim body as it was revealed.   
She shimmied out of the snug garment, and helped him with his fine linen shirt, then rubbed her hand against the outline of his cock, pushing for release from his twill pants. With one hand on her nape, he opened his fly buttons and released his cock into her waiting hand. She grinned and engulfed it in her mouth,her tongue swirling around it and making him groan.   
'Miss Tam, Miss… what is your personal name, anyway?' he gasped.   
She sucked and he gasped again, forgetting even his own name for a moment. He felt himself on the verge and reluctantly pulled back, releasing himself. River made a moue of disappointment.   
'Sorry, I'd.. I'd rather take my time and make you happy too. I'm not a randy teenager.'  
'Are you ready to fuck me now?'  
Again the rough language in cultured tones. He shivered with lust. He lightly pushed her onto her back and climbed on top of her, pulling her hair free and kissing that incredible mouth. Her tongue stroked his and he nearly lost control.   
'Do you have any condoms?' he asked.  
'I take my contras.'  
'I just don't want to be too fast for you.'  
She reached behind a silk curtain over the bed and pulled out a handful of varicoloured wrappers. Kelly chose one that he knew would help him take his time. River's slender fingers helped him roll it on, and before he knew it her legs were wrapped around him and she was poised for his entry.  
Kelly pushed himself gently into her. She was ready, not really needing the lubricant on the wrap. As he pushed forward she tightened around him, making him work his way into her hot velvet.   
'You're… Miss Tam, you…,' he muttered.   
Her sweet voice was in his ear, murmuring intensely,' Tā mā de wǒ xīnkǔ, gěi wǒ nàgè yìng jiāhuo, tā mā de wǒ xiàng yī tái jīqì, ràng wǒ dádào gāocháo, wǒ huì pēn chū xiàng yīgè pēnquán.'  
Her every move every wiggle, each kiss or bite, was exactly what he wanted at that moment.'Nán, nán, ràng wǒ jiān jiào. ' Even her words were what he wanted to hear.   
'Wǒ xūyào yīgè dà gōngjī, gěi wǒ gèng duō. Tā mā de wǒ. Tā mā de wǒ. Nín de yīnjīng shì rúcǐ zhī dà.'   
He felt her hand on his balls,gently pressing them closer to his body. It was what he wanted and he came, feeling as if his orgasm would never end, pulsing over and over into her tight cunt.  
Red-faced, sweaty, and breathless, he opened his eyes and kissed her cool lips.   
'Flu ni tar ze pam,' she whispered. He didn't know what she meant.  
  
When he awoke, she was gone. He was confused and unsure how long he had been asleep. He stretched wondering here Miss Tam, damn, what was her personal name, after that  tussle they should be on a first name basis. Where had she gone. He reviewed the evening, passing quickly over the dumpling shop and the ballet, to dwell on the great sex, amazing sex, he had enjoyed. Remembering, his hand went to his cock and he stroked himself. He came suddenly and urgently. Embarrassed he looked about for something to clean off the sheets.  
He saw a standard loo in a corner and used it , washing his face, crotch and hands at the fold down sink. He looked around . Fastidiously he wiped the heavy linen sheets with a scrap of toilet paper,straightened them and pulled up the brocade duvet. His movements pushed aside the embroidered silk hanging behind the bed.   
He gasped.  
The hanging concealed an array of … sharp pointy things. Knives from stiletto to bowie, tomahawks and hatchets and what appeared to be a full size battle-axe.   
All were in excellent condition, clean and, above all, sharp.   
'Flowers. I guess I'll have flowers delivered as a thank you.' He didn't want her to think he was less than perfectly polite. The Core put great store on appearances.  
  
He dressed in the white lawn shirt and twill trousers he had worn last night but carried his light wool cape. Up the ladder and down the companionway to the cargo bay door.   
  
Which was locked.  
For the first time, Kelly became aware of a background hum. He listened carefully. The hum was the sound of engines.  
Was this ship flying?  
Panicked , he swung around. He heard voices further back in the ship and headed for them.  
  
He found the kitchen, and the same crew he met last night goggled at him.   
The captain said, 'Huh.' while the First Mate leapt to her feet, hand on pistol.  
Who carries a gun on a spaceship? Kelly wondered.  
'Could someone open the door for me?' he asked.   
The man called Jayne guffawed, 'Right cold outside buddyboy. Not that you'd notice, 'fore you explode.'  
'Boom!' said the small boy, giggling.   
The baby crowed, 'Boom, boom, boom!'  
Their mother shushed them. 'What are you doing here? We left Beggar's Tin hours ago. We'll be landin at Centreridge Dock any minute.'  
'I… escorted Miss Tam back to the ship and … she invited me in. …. I just woke up.'  
The captain gave him a 'protective daddy' look.   
'Emma, go  take over the bridge for a bit.'  
The little girl jump up and headed forward.  
'Don't try to land, ' the captain added. 'Just don't hit any mountains … or the ground.'  
Was the girl more than eleven? wondered Kelly as she raced out of the kitchen.  
Kaylee gave him a cup of tea and a bowl , indicating the rice pot in the middle of the table.  
River entered and stopped. 'I forgot. There were… emotions…and can I keep him, captain?' The girl was agitated, her hands twisting in her hair, looking from Kelly to the captain.  
'No, you can't 'keep' him,' the captain said firmly.' You can't keep people, less'n they want to stay.' River looked as if she was going to interrupt. 'And he can't stay, 'cause I say so. He gets off at Centreridge.'  
'Wait a minute, Captain Reynolds, ' said Kelly. ' I didn't ask for a trip to Silverhold and I don't even have a decent coat for the northern weather. I demand that you take me back to Beggar's Tin.'  
'Can't. We're on a schedule.'  
'Must. Or I'll bring charges of kidnapping against you.'  
'Seems to me like you got here willingly, sniffin' after lil River's pussy.' said Jayne.  
The captain glared at both men, then threw up his hands. 'Let me think on.  Tross, get back to the bridge and give us a gentle landing.'  
  
  
When Emma returned, the adult crew retired to the infirmary leaving Kelly with the children. the baby crawled on his lap and knelt there, staring into his eyes. The older children stared too. The boy from time to time whispered , 'Boom' and they dissolved into laughter.  
Eventually the pitot's voice came over the comm. 'Approaching Centreridge and cleared for landing.'  
There was only the slightest bump as the ship set down, but it unbalanced the baby on his lap. As she fell from her knees to her bottom, he learned that she was still in diapers. His pants were wet where she sat.   
  
The crew returned from the infirmary.   
'Git in here, Tross,' the captain commanded and the girl quickly joined them.   
'We're on a schedule here, the New Canaan Run, so we can't return you. Riv.' he addressed the pilot. 'You done wrong not putting your light'o'love off before we left.'  
'Forgot,' muttered the girl.  
'Thinkin with yer…'  
'Captain,' murmured Kaylee.'Children.'  
'Anyways. Kelly, we're both got a little problem with the authorities if either of us draws their attention. So we're gonna give you three things, River will pay your fare back to your moon from her own money. We'll all apologize for not makin sure no accidental travellers were on the boat before we left. We should remember what happened last time. '  
Zoe's arm around her daughter tightened.  
'And we owe you a favour. We 'll be doin this Run regular and we will do business in future.'  
  
Kelly considered. And. 'Is there a chance of another night with River?' he asked.  
The pilot giggled.   
  



	6. HARVEST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serenity brings a passenger to Harvest where she is looking for work. Jayne is entranced.

FIFTH LEG:  
SILVERHOLD to HARVEST  
  
Silverhold to Harvest: Two weeks  
  
Inbound cargo:    - linen thread for weaving mills  
                 - dried algae from Beaumonde for protein plants  
                -Lithium for pharmaceutical manufacturers on Harvest   
                -smuggled bullion for Hera  
Outbound cargo:     -linen clothes and fabric for Harvest and further   
                -Lithium for pharmaceutical manufacturers on Harvest  
                 -smuggled gold bound for Hera  
  
  
  
It took most of the day to unload the minerals from the cargo bay. Kelly arranged transport back to Beggar's Tin and River paid his way with coin saved from her wages.  
Like the rest of the crew, River got 10% of any job, plus kitchen privileges and her bunk.  And, with the new , legal and profitable jobs they were getting through Perseus Alleyne, the fare barely touched her capital.   
  
Zoe was entrusted with keeping the books straight for Perseus' employers. And the other set.  
  
'After this run, we should buzz by Paquin an visit my folks.' Kaylee told Mal as he took a break after unloading 20 kilo sacks of refined salt.  
'Kid’s’ll like that. An we can get shut of some of this coin.'  
'How much do we have now, capt'n?' she asked, leaning back agains his sweaty chest. He smelled disturbingly male.  
'No idea. Ain't really been keepin track. Is there somethin expensive you want, mei mei?'  
'Got most everything I want, you, Derry, Baby Girl, Serenity, warm place to sleep, real food on the table. Could do with a hydraulic lift and maybe nother mule.'  
'No diamonds? A sable cloak? Some pretty dresses?'  
'Come to think-- when we get to Hera,me an River are goin shoppin. Maybe Zoe and Emma too. We all want some new clothes.'  
'Even Emma?'  
'She wants a catsuit like River's. Seems to consider it part of piloting.' Kaylee laughed.  
'Long as she don't take to painful shirts like her Daddy.'  
'Where's River? I still don't like her wandering around alone.'  
'In her bunk. Kelly's ship don't leave til 1700. Where are the kids?'  
'Playin outside with the kids from Pretty Baby. Emma has Beege.'  
'So….'  
'Yeah, wanna tussle?'  
'You may have to do most of the hard work, Kaywinnet. Them sacks didn't move themselves.'  
She whispered in his ear, 'I'll ride you like a rodeo pony, Malcolm. C'mon.'  
  
They left the cargo by, hand in hand. Kaylee pulling her husband back to their suite in the passenger dorms. Child free moments on a small ship were precious.  
  
At 1600 hours, River and Kelly came down the companionway from the crew bunks. At the ramp, Kelly tried to kiss her, but she turned her face away.  
Jayne, sitting in Kaylee's lawn chair at the bottom of the ramp, Baby Girl sleeping on his shoulder, watched them.   
'Will I see you again, tiánměi shàonǚ ?' Kelly asked. River looked confused.   
'Can't see the future. There's no room, too much now.'  
'If y'ain't figured yet, r'River's a little crazy.'  
'That's a damn rude remark,' Kelly said angrily.  
'True though. She's batshit nuts. Don't bug her, she'll cut you,' He pulled up his tee to show a long thin scar across his chest. The baby stirred restlessly.   
'You look better in red,' muttered River.   
Kelly was unsure what to say.  
'Damn good pilot,though,' added Jayne cheerfully. 'An from the noises she was makin, she prob'ly likes you.'  
With no response available, Kelly turned back to River, who was looking over at the playing children.  
'I'll call you when I get back to Beggar's Tin, then?' he asked, but she had already left to join the kids.  
'Batshit,' said Jayne. 'Hey, man to man, how is she in the sack?'  
'Best I've ever…. not something a gentleman would ever discuss,' Kelly said stiffly.  
'I figured. She'd always know what you wanted,' Jayne grunted. 'Hell, she's punched me a few times, just for what I was thinkin. Anyways Mal'd kill me, if I tried anythin.'  
'You must have an open face.'  
'Naw, River's a Reader, didn't you work that out? Here comes our cargo,' He whistled to Emma to take over the sleeping baby and flagged the two mules hauling bid spools of Glucklich Jia linen thread from the mills of Silverhold, that Serenity would carry to the weavers on Harvest.   
Zoe and Mal appeared to help with the cargo. Kelly, blowing a kiss to River, headed for his ride home. She was playing tag and didn't notice.   
  
Kaylee had put the children to bed and joined Mal in the commons where he was reading.  
'Not much excitement on this run, capt'n.'  
'Not yet, Jayne ain't our best ticket seller. We got a couple hours in the morning fore Simon and David arrive. It'd be good to have passengers. They have stories t'keep the kids entertained,specially when there's no room t'play in the cargo bay.'  
  
  
 _Serenity_ was cleared by Centrebridge Dock flight control just as Red Sun rose on the dockyard. Kaylee was doing a quick walkaround inspection, when a fresh faced young woman approached her.  
'You're bound for Harvest? Where are you puttin' down?'  
'Lemongrass, near the textile mills.'  
'Are you taken passengers? I'm headed there for a job.' She indicated her duffle and rollercase.  
'We got two cabins available, or a just a bunkie if yer short of cash.'  
'Just a bunk is fine. I can pay in scrip or coin.'  
'We always prefer coin.' After agreeing on the fare, Kaylee invited the girl aboard and showed her to the bunkie in the passenger area.  
'Our last passenger just left,' Kaylee said, not mentioning that circumstances of Kelly's passage. 'So you got the bunk to yourself. Sheets are clean, extra blankets in the cupboard, sink an commode here. There's a shower room on the way to the commons. I'm Kaylee, by the way, ship's mechanic.'  
'Rosa-Lucia Berg.' The women shook and Kaylee collected the fare.  
'If you want a few minutes?'  
'No, I'm fine.'  
'Then why don't you join the crew for breakfast? I think Zoe picked up some eggs yesterday.'

  
Zoe had and had also found some sweet cider. Kaylee poured cups for herself and for Rosa-Lucia. She took her baby girl from Mal.  
'This is Rosa, she's job hunting on Harvest.'  
Mal shook the passenger's hand. 'Feel free to use the kitchen and commons, but please stay out of the cargo bay. The bridge and the engine room are also restricted. If you feel peckish, you can have anything in the unlocked cabinets.'  
'We'd be obliged if you wash up after yourself, though,' said Jayne.  
'This your week on dishes, Jayne? Dinner we usually eat together around 1800, early because of the kids.'  
Rosa-Lucia had only seen the baby who Kaylee was trying to persuade to eat some sweetened porridge.  
'They's vid and bookpads in the commons and exercise equipment in the cargo bay, but as I said, you'll need a crew as escort there.'  
'You'd want a spotter anyways,' added Jayne.  
'I may take you up on that, if it's an offer,' Rosa said, smiling at the big merc.  
  
It was and she did,which meant that the quiet time between stops were more relaxing for the crew, who didn't have to put up with a moody, restless Jayne. She added something to dinner conversations too with a spirited defence of the value of good government, while agreeing with Mal that the current state of the Alliance was not noticeably better than it was before the Unification War.   
  
'I really blame Blue Sun Corporation.' she said that night. 'They run the government and if it's good for Blue Sun they think its good for all the 'Verse.'  
'The government makes the rules, ' Mal pointed out.   
'Make a difference between 'government' and 'politicians', Captain,' Rosa-Lucia said. ‘The government is the people who carry out the programs the politicians make.'  
'An ways too strict bout it too.'  
'And sometimes not strict enough. The same law should apply to everybody, but when was the last time you heard of a big company begin charged with slave-trading?'  
'Never that I can think of.'  
'No they pick out the little guys, the farmers, the brothels, the small factories, even families who buy a couple of servants.'  
'And you think they shouldn't be charged?  Is it better to be enslaved personal-like than by some faceless company?'  
'Of course not, I'm just saying that I've seen a lot more slave-trading going on that the people with a dozen servants can account for. And then there is bond-slavery.'  
'Like them Mudders at Canton, few years back? ' asked Jayne.  
'Yes. In theory they borrowed money and are paying it off with their labour, but the wages are low and have to be spent at the company store.'  
'But they go into it willingly,' said Kaylee.   
'Not always, mei mei, ' said Mal, 'Sometimes a kid is sold by parents, or the papers is forged. Then all they can hope for is money to fall from the sky.'  
The crew laughed. Rosa-Lucia looked puzzled.  
Kaylee explained, 'That actually happened on Higgin's Moon. Jayne can tell you about it sometime.'  
'I'd be interested,' she smiled at Jayne, then turned back to Mal. 'And more important, or at least as important, slavery, bond or no, keeps wages down for free workers.'  
'Like you.'  
'Mmm. Like me.' Her mouth twisted a little.   
'Makes sense, if all the boss has to do is feed the workers, he ain't gonna pay more'n that for someone who wants a better life, maybe send the kids to school,' said Kaylee.  
'Spread the money around and more, all those free workers will buy the stuff they make.'  
'Not much we can do about it, though,' said Mal.  
'Every little bit helps. Even just voting for parties that ain't  aligned with the corporations.'  
'Like them Greenies?' asked Jayne.  
Mal looked surprised that Jayne knew even that much about politics.  
'Okay, maybe,' Rosa-Lucia said, ' Blue Sun doesn't own them anyway, not like the Vanguard.'  
  
The last morning before Harvest, Zoe met Rosa emerging from Jayne's bunk.   
  
At Harvest, the longshore crew were waiting for Serenity. Off-loading started immediately. Jayne and Zoe, muscle and management, worked smoothly together to get the huge spools onto the Blue Sun trucks which would take them to the Blue Sun mill that would weave the cloth for the Blue Sun garment factories. The finished garments would be shipped, some as Serenity's next cargo, to Blue Sun wholesalers for distribution to Blue Sun retailers all over the 'Verse.  
'Including back to Silverhold,' said Rosa-Lucia bitterly.'Well Kaylee, thank you for your hospitality. '  
She looked over Jayne, laughing with a longshoreman as they hoisted the large spools.  
'Was this anything' serious?' asked Kaylee  
'Nah, just ships passing in the Black,' sighed Rosa-Lucia.  
'Jayne gave you a good time, I hope?' said Kaylee.' He's a bit rough in his talk and most of his women is pros.'  
'No worries,'  she smiled brightly,'Look can I leave my wave for the next time you visit Harvest? I really enjoyed this trip. Would've even without the …. extra service.'  
Kaylee laughed and they exchanged contact ID. 'We're here overnight. Let me know if the job works out?'  
  
With a wave, Rosa-Lucia squared her shoulders and marched down the ramp to her new life.   
  
Kaylee took River and the children shopping for clothing, while the new cargo, bales of cloth and of shirts,  was being loaded. The shops near the docks specialized in remainders and seconds from the Blue Sun conglomerate. There was lots of choice and prices were good. although it was important to watch for flaws like tears of mismatched colours. Some ships traded exclusively in those off-brand goods, peddling to small shops on homesteading Rim worlds.   
  
When they returned, burdened by bags and nibbling on  corn dogs, sugar fried potatoes, cold dumplings,street food; the cargo bay had been emptied and refilled. They would carry processed foodstuffs, mostly protein but also canned fruit, to New Canaan, stopping first to drop a shipment of linen shirts on Faraday Moon.  
'Them shirts if from the Triangle Factory. That's where lil Rosa was lookin for work,' said Jayne.   
'We're ready to go, soon's Simon and Davie join us,  but you an Zoe ain't had no shore leave,’ said Mal. 'You want to take some private time?'  
'I don't have nuthin special to do,' said Jayne.'Just another dockyard.'  
'I'd like to go check out the theatre,' said Zoe. 'The music hall flyer says that the Pepper Troupe is appearing. I could take Emma and maybe River, if no one else wants to go.'  
Kaylee murmured to Jayne, 'I have Rosa-Lucia's wave if you think she might like to see you.'  
Jayne brightened. 'Yeah, thanks, lil Kaylee.'  
  
Mal and Kaylee enjoyed a quiet family evening at home with their children, talking about everything and nothing. The baby's anxiety to walk and reluctance to speak. Derry's rapid progress with reading and excellent grasp of arithmetic. The price of the new clothes. And the uses they could make of the coin accumulating under the outbuildings on Kaylee's daddy's land.   
  
The children had been put to bed, and their parents were cuddled on the chesterfield, Kaylee reading one of her romances, Mal playing a game on the Cortex.  
  
Mal's comm pinged.  
'Jayne? You need bail already?'  
'I'm at the Triangle factory. It's burning and Rosa's inside.'  
' Gwai-gwai long duh dong! Is the fire department there?'  
'No. Can you bring the mule, Mal? I'm gonna try to get her out, but she's on the third floor.'  
Mal was already moving. 'Meet you there,' he said, his comm giving him the coordinates.  
  
Mal sped above the street traffic in the hovermule, pleased that there were no cops around to ticket him for the violation. The factory was only about two klicks from the docks. A large crowd was milling about.  
'The doors are locked! The girls are trapped inside!' a bystander was shouting. The fourth and fifth floor windows had exploded and some of the crowd looked festive with glass shards caught in their hair. Others were having cuts tended by a chaplain and a woman in medical scrubs.   
Mal spotted Jayne by his height and waved him over.   
'SitRep!' he barked.  
Jayne looked puzzled. Mal sighed.'What's happenin?'  
'I was goin ta pick up Rosa after her shift. Been here bout half an hour. You could see the fire on the fourth floor then, but no one was leaving. Called Rosa and she tol me they'd been tol to keep working. That there was just a little accident upstairs.  
'Then one of the girls tried to open the stairwell and it was locked. Which is when I arrived.'  
'Comm and tell her to go to the window on the north side. We'll come up to it, or near enough, she can jump out.'  
Jayne relayed the instructions. 'She says the windows is locked too.'  
'Tell her to throw a sewing machine through it . Or the foreman.'  
A serging machine flew through the central window followed by the limp form of a well-dressed woman.  
'The foreman, reckon?' grinned Jayne.   
Mal brought the mule but only to the top of the second floor window. 'Tell her she'll have to jump.’  
But the first through the window was a very pregnant Chinese woman, followed by a girl barely into her teens. Jayne settled them, while Mal took the mule down to the ground.The next trip picked up two more youngsters and a skinny white haired man, who yelped as he landed in the mule.  
Jayne passed the old man over to the first aid crew, and they went up again. Another flying mule and another arrived.   
The workers on the second floor had sussed out what was happening and were jumping from their own smashed windows The first aid crew were busy with cuts and broken bones. An ambulance arrived from the dockyard's Book Memorial Clinic and set up a smoke inhalation recovery unit.   
  
Mal and Jayne had evacuated over forty workers and still had not seen Rosa-Lucia. With a crash of concrete and flying gypsum, the fifth floor collapsed. The fourth followed, then the extra weight collapsed the building floor by floor. A cloud of fine debris filled the air.   
Jayne moaned. Mal had not seen him so upset since he got news of the death of his invalid brother, Matty.   
Finally, a fire truck arrived and hooking up to a hydrant began spraying the still burning wreckage.  
Jayne started forward and was stopped by the fire marshal. 'Not until the fire's out, son. Too dangerous.'  
Jayne swore incoherently.  
'Where the ten shuh duh you been! This place has been burning for near on an hour.' shouted Mal.  
'We're reserve. Took a while to get a crew together. Let us do our job now, sir,' she replied. The marshal turned away and made hand signals to guide one fire crew to aim their hose higher, then trotted over to the makeshift clinic.  
'Reserve?' shouted Jayne.  
'Control your friend, sir.' she said to Mal.' The main force, police and fire are at the Governor's Palace for his son's wedding reception.  Only reserves are available.'  
'Are they comin?' shouted Jayne.  
'Dunno. If the governor and the chief think it necessary. That your mule? Could you help ferry patients to the hospital?'  
  
Mal and Jayne spent the next four hours moving patients to Book Memorial.   
There had been about 500 working the day shift at  Triangle Shirt . Some 300 made it out.   
According to rumour.   
There was no official news of the fire on the Cortex channels except a business report on damage to the building and the rising cost of insurance to industry.  
                                                 


	7. DYTON COLONY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes this is a crossover.   
> I got The Tourist's Guide to Ankh-Morpork for Christmas and this happened.

DYTON COLONY

Inbound- foodstuffs- prepared foods including protein - canned foods  
\- fresh produce and grain  
-herbs and lithium- raw material for medicines  
-linen shirts   
Outbound- homeopathic medicines  
\- counterfeit electronics from dwarf craftsmen  
-knives and axes 

 

"Dyton Colony, armpit of the 'Verse."  
"C'mon, capt'n, We've seen worse. Whitefall, frinstance"  
"Any world that produced a psychotic lowlife like Badger is not goin ta be on my list of attractive tourist destinations, Kaywinnet."  
"But they can produce custom made parts for less than used parts cost most places, ain't that worth a visit?"  
"Other girls like flowers and perfume, how is it you go all mushy over engine parts?"  
"I kin get flowers from Hope's garden. She's even got tomatoes grown in the hydroponics room. But nuthin can replace a vertical integrator when it rusts out. And ours has become a garden of iron oxide."

Somewhere, Simon had found a tourist guide to Dyton, and persuaded Mal that a sightseeing walk through the ring city that made up Dyton's primary commercial centre would be interesting and educational. Putting on his best grumpy face, Mal collected Kaylee and Derry and strapped on Babygirl in her back carrier for a shopping tour of the colony. Simon and David were planning to stop at the Apothecary Gardens to see what herbal and homeopathic medicines might be available.  
"You know, if a herbal infusion works, we call it medicine." said Simon.   
David laughed, "Some of my ladies prefer the milder effects of homeopathic products."  
"Like belladonna? If the water remembers the medicine, why doesn't it remember all the urine that has been poured into it over the centuries?"  
The spouses continued their bickering as the party crossed Misbegot Bridge .   
"The apothecary I was talking to said in some seasons, ailments can be cured just by breathing the air in the Gardens."  
"That would be the slicker whose stock seemed to be made up of penises from every species on Earth-That-Was?" asked Mal. "I wouldn't go near that feller again less I was wearin a cup."  
The medics found a herbalist whose wares were less embarrassing than David's informant, and stopped to shop for both medicinal and culinary products.   
"See if they have any good hoisin sauce," instructed Kaylee. "And lots of chili peppers to take the bland out of the protein."  
"Now, bao bei, we don't eat that go se so much any more," Mal protested.   
"Nah, but dried peppers keep, and if we can get a good stock here, we may as well."  
The Reynolds family strolled further along their sight seeing route, passing the elaborate bandstand that local legend claimed was actually designed as a decoration for a wedding cake by an architect who was notorious for his inability to measure. Leaving the Gardens near an ancient boozer called the Mortar and Pestle, they turned onto Prouts, then turned left onto Misbegot Bridge to cross what the Dytoners mistakenly called a river.   
The river was so thick with pollution and garbage that it was almost possible to walk on it, although doing so would probably dissolve the walker's shoes.   
The Bridge was wide enough that houses and shops had been built along both sides leaving only the narrowest passage for pedestrians. Kaylee kept her squirmy son firmly by the hand as they passed narrow house facades, many of which had been turned into shops selling pastries and candies, tobacco and sotweed, brummagem tat and fine jewellery.  
As they approached Treacle Mine Road the street widened. On their left was a pleasant building in the Arcadian style, with a plaque that identified it as a Companions' madrassa.   
But the inhabitants of Treacle Mine Road were of a more practical bent than the graceful Companion House would indicate. In the tall buildings that lined the road, and in the basements and sub-basements of those buildings, were the workshops and factories of some of the finest craftsmen in the 'Verse.   
Dyton was originally colonized by convicts, especially when word got around that the terraforming company would pay to reduce sentences for non-violent criminals who were willing to work on the habitation. Many of those convicts had been counterfeiters, not only of money, coin and fiat, but of any high value product that had a ready and ignorant market for cheap knockoffs.   
Kaylee was watching for a craftsman who would be able to turn out the parts she had been unable to find in her thorough winnowing of junkyards in every port they hit.   
"Time is money, capt'n," she explained again."sometimes it's cheaper to pay for the right thing right now, than to try to mod up something' that ain't quite quite."   
Mal just looked stubborn, and  Derry was practicing his own stubborn face. She sighed. These Reynolds men.   
Just before they got to Cable Street, Kaylee found what she was looking for, and left Mal with the children to find a snack in the noisy produce market with its array of possibly edible things on sticks and other Dyton specialties.   
A vendor carrying a tray with small oil burners offered them meat pies.   
"What kind of meat?"  
"Oh, you want the special pies! With mustard!"   
Mal and Derry were nibbling on BBQ dog with sweet chili sauce and discussing what might be in the baker's Spotted Dick when she returned in triumph.

"He'll make us a vertical integrator for five platinum and an extra for another two. Says the biggest part of the work is in making the model, then he can turn 'em out easy. But he asked that we let any other Firefly mechanics know that he can make 'em . Which is fine by me. Sou-fen was complaining' that their mechanic always wants new parts and don't know how to make secondhand ones work. I'll send her a wave when we get back to Serenity."  
"Are you hungry, bao bei?" asked Mal, "That street vendor has hot pies, and there are some other things around. Prolly safer things."  
"Oooh! Rollmops!" squealed Kaylee. "I'll get some of those, and look, baked potatoes with refried beans. And how about Sticky Toffee Pudding for afters!"  
"Ain't you the one fussin us all to eat our vegetables? "  
"There's pickled onions in the rollmops, and potatoes is veg. So's beans."  
Kaylee picked up a disposable bamboo bowl and chopsticks with her rollmops, but kept the potato in its little wooden bento box as being too difficult to eat while walking.  
They reached a major junction where The Scours met Easy Street. The Museum of Antiquities of the Guild of Historians was on the corner.   
Street theatre, always a threat on Dyton, broke out as they passed in the form of a historical re-enactment troupe dodging sedan chairs, hover cabs, and rickshaws while re-enacting one of the skirmishes of the War of Independence that had occurred on Dyton.   
They turned left up Easy Street to Rime Street where a Mr Scant , Keeper of Monuments, was showing his treasured architectural wonders, built by the same dimensionally challenged architect who had built the bandstand/cake ornament in Apothecary Park.  For six coppers, Derry was allowed to gaze on the Dyton Colossus and the Unification Triumphal Arch, which Mr. Scant, kept in a small cardboard box in his pocket.   
Turning right, they headed upriver along Rime Street from where they looked across to The Butts on the Isle of Gods, then on to Contract Bridge and up Contract Alley onto ancient Filigree Street.  
"We better stop and feed BabyGirl. She's getting restless."  
"More important, she seems to have completed digestin her breakfast." sniffed Mal.  
"Baby made a poop! Baby made a poop!" laughed Derry.  
"Right entertainin' if you're eight, and not carryin the little stinker," his father muttered.  
They were outside a pub called The Mended Drum, and Kaylee marched them all inside. She signalled the bartender to serve her men and a quick whisper to the waitress, a very short woman wearing leather skirt and chainmail top who seemed to need a shave, got her instructions on how to find the Ladies.   
When they returned, Mal had a large pewter mug of beer and Derry a glass of something neon and bubbly. Both seemed content.   
BabyGirl and her mother were somewhat shaken by experiencing the Ladies. "Ain't this town never heard of a honeywagon?" she muttered.   
Mal ordered her a beer and to calm her asked for a little something to add to it. "Something fruity, " he specified.   
The waitress looked doubtful. "We've got scumble. That's made with apples? well, mostly apples.  
Kaylee was feeding the baby with the potato and beans. "Great. I like cider. That should be fine." She directed Mal to give each of them some of the Sticky Toffee Pudding purchased on the street earlier. 

Probably she should have been more attentive when the waitress brought the beer and shot in treenware mugs. 

When Derry on a sugar rush from the pop and toffee pudding and his giggling mother started trying to harmonize on Browncoat songs Mal had taught them, Mal and his redheaded daughter exchanged old-fashioned looks.   
They took a rickshaw back to the Docks and Serenity. 

Kaylee was able, just, to take possession of the new vertical integrator when the stumpy bearded craftsman delivered it, two days later. But she complained that it was too shiny and had Zoe install it because the engine was humming like a planet sized beehive.

While Mal and Kaylee were exploring Dyton Colony, Zoe had found a customer for all the lithium they had purchased on spec at Harvest, following a tip from Simon. The pharmaceutical company was run bay a consortium of Dytonians whose accents remedied Zoe of her Cornish roots. Unlike her they were very short an ran to extravagantly braided red beards. The lead negotiator, a blonde woman who was no taller than eight year old Derry, confirmed their origin.

'We'm been miners,underground on Earth -that -was. Tin and sillier mostly, but there was some gold too. Ay, gold is our favourite.'  
"Do you buy gold, then?'  
Oh, aye. We'm needs it for buying oursel's.'  
She laughed at Zoe's puzzlement. 'Kids take a lot of raisin. To be a real adult, we pays our parents back. An o'course, that's also part of our marriage covenants.'  
"Umm… of course,' said Zoe. 'And it has to be gold?'  
'Traditional.'  
'I may have some gold available. We're carryin a small cargo to Hera for the jewellery trade there, strictly legal.'  
'But some not so much?'  
'It's available if the price is right.'  
Cornishmen are known for their caution and negotiations for the gold took several hours.  
When Mal brought his family back from their sightseeing trip, Jayne was loading Kelly's boxes not a pint sized mule. He raised an eyebrow at Zoe.

Two percent over mid-market. Would've been two five if I'd sold the legal gold too. Dyton likes to have paperwork. '  
'Se we got ten of mid market up from and we keep twelve of mid-market as sold. An' we don't have to worry about search and seizure . Good job, Zoe.'  
'Yes, sir.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> platinum:  
> A type of hard currency, typically used on border worlds and for most clandestine dealings. For the purposes of conversion, a credit converts to platinum on approximately a 4:1 ratio, and a platinum coin converts to paper scrip (1 "dollar") at approximately 10:1. (1 credit = 4 platinum = 40 bills).


	8. INTO THE BLACK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The New Canaan Run is both interplanetary and interstellar. Without FTL, a crew can get cabin fever.

INTO THE BLACK  
  
Harvest to New Canaan: Sixteen weeks  
  
Inbound- food - prepared foods including protein - canned foods  
        - fresh produce and grain  
        -herbs and lithium- raw material for medicines  
        -linen shirts   
        -smuggled gold from Beggar's Tin for Hera  
        -pineapples  
  
  
  
Simon and David arrived from their clinic at Sweetwater as Mal and Jayne pulled up. They were shocked by their friends tired and filthy appearance.  
As they stored the mule and the medics brought in their luggage and equipment from their taxi, Mal explained what had happened overnight.   
Simon made a call to the Flying Doctors station and arranged for them to stay on Harvest to help at the Book Hospital. A trauma surgeon with expertise in cosmetic burn surgery would be invaluable. Arrangements were made to pick up Simon and David on Dyton Colony.  
  
While arrangements had been made for the medics' changed schedules, Emma had washed the men's clothes and repacked their bags. River and Kaylee were preparing Serenity for the next leg to New Canaan. Zoe was accepting the last pallets of cargo, fruit and vegetables bound for New Canaan, relatively low cost at this time of year on Harvest but a high value cargo if delivered promptly to Baal, the major centre of the terraformed basin on the almost unliveable planet.   
  
The sixteen weeks they would need for travel to the Blue Sun world meant that most of the foodstuffs were frozen or canned. But even those would be welcomed by the terraforming crews on New Canaan and Lilac. Some unprocessed fruits and vegetables, apples, oranges, potatoes and cabbage, were cheap on Harvest, but would still command high prices on the lonely outpost.   
  
There were less than half a million people on the planet and its two moons, and only Ugarit was comfortably terraformed. Lilac was just a mining colony, supplying basic raw materials for the unusually difficult work on the ring planet.   
  
  
All the children were restless. With the cargo bay crammed with boxes and bales, there was little room for them to run and play.   
Like all the crew, Derry and Emma did weight training with Jayne and gymnastics with River. Zoe and River also gave occasional lessons in formal fighting techniques. The captain and the mercenary had decided that their own streetfighting skills could wait until the kids were teenagers.   
But that was lessons and the children needed more imaginative play. Without that they were cranky.  
  
And the baby was hungry. After being bitten once too often, Kaylee decided it was time to wean. While her body adjusted, her breasts were sore and too late she found that Simon had not stocked any prolactin suppressants or even pseudoephedrine to help reduce her milk supply.   
  
￼  
  
BabyGirl ('Really, Malcolm, we should get her a proper name real soon.') had been eating solids for a few months happily enough until she noticed that her nursing times with Mummy had abruptly stopped.  So she cried incessantly, refusing solids, pushing away her sippy cup with the Fruity Oaty Girls logo, making big sad eyes at everyone. If anyone picked her up to comfort her, they soon found damp spots on the front of their shirts where she tried to suckle. And since she had quite advanced motor skills she was quite capable of opening buttoned or zipped tops.   
  
Jayne's face when BG opened his shirt and latched on to his nipple was a picture.  
  
Weaning the baby was hard on Kaylee too. Her breasts were engorged and sensitive. It was fortunate that the cargo of fresh vegetables included a lot of cabbage. Drawing on advice from her friend Sou-fen, Kaylee was making compresses of chilled cabbage leaves to soothe her sore breasts. But BG's attempts to nurse whenever she was picked up and fury at being refused, hurt her emotionally as well as physically.  
  
River had been managing well for the past couple of months without the care of her brother. Piloting gave her an interest and a way to use her active mind, keeping the ghosts away. She also took some responsibility for the physical education of the children and was training Emma as a pilot, even though herself she had no papers for the job. But Simon had always kept careful records of her hormone levels as a gauge of her stability. Without her brother, her cocktail of medications had slowly become less effective. Forgetting that she had brought Kelly on board would have been a signal to him, but the crew did not understand that as a symptom. If anything they were relieved that perhaps she would be able to forget the horrors that had been visited on her.   
  
She took to suiting up and spacewalking. The Black had long been a source of comfort for her. After a week or so on the Harvest to New Canaan leg, she was spending ten or more hours a day, tethered to Serenity's skin, bathing in the starlight.   
  
It was not a happy ship.  
  
Even Zoe usually calm and stoic, was restless. Mostly this meant snapping at Jayne as they moved from stop to stop between Harvest and New Canaan picking up and delivering small cargoes.  
  
Small, but high value and often fragile. Just keeping the fresh fruits and vegetables in condition for over two months was a challenge. Jayne and Mal had built capsule housing for each crop from bamboo and oiled cloth that helped control temperature and humidity, Designed by River and Emma,they kept the apples from rotting the cabbages, the yams from sprouting, the bananas green.   
Still the houses required constant monitoring and  Jayne was still upset about losing Rosa-Lucia back on Harvest. Perhaps if this leg had been shorter, he would have had other things to think about. The cargo was not uppermost in his mind.   
  
‘Like she's allys on her period,' he grumbled. checking humidity levels for the second time that day. ‘Snappin and bitchin. I done this already an it ain't like there ain't no alarm on it.'  
  
In the three weeks between Harvest and the stopover at Dyton Colony off Greenleaf, the only light spot was a new game developed by River. with the gravity turned down, she and the older children would race through the ship swinging from railings, running up walls, leaping from one level to the next. ‘Parker' she called it, explaining she had found vids on the Cortex.   
But after two weeks of noisy fun that terrified Derry's mother and showed Jayne that there were things a fifty kilo girl could do that were almost impossible for a 1.9 metre man no matter how fit , disaster struck.   
  
Derry, the shortest of the parkers, missed his landing and fell six metres to the floor of the cargo bay, breaking his arm.    
"It's not just a greenstick either, ' said Zoe, back in her old position as ship's medic while Simon and David finished their assignment on Harvest.  “This is the real thing. I think I got it right and the dia-x shows it straight, but if it ain't it may have to be rebroken and reset.'  
  
The two mothers were furious with River. They had tried to slow down the game but were just willing to allow it so energy could be burned off. Even Mal bawled her out for lack of judgement.   
River retreated to the bridge and to spending long hours  tethered to Serenity's skin, contemplating the Black as she gracefully flew on to her destination.  
  
The men met them at Dyton with the sad news that no trace of Rosa-Lucia had been found in the ruins of the Triangle Shirt Factory.   
  
The old man who had been rescued by Mal and Jayne had succumbed to smoke inhalation, but somehow he was the only death among those taken out of the smashed windows by the volunteers and their mules.   
The news reports are  useless.' said Simon , "But the hospital believes that no more than a hundred were killed by the fire out of the five hundred or more working that night.'  
'Why zat?' asked Zoe.  
'A lot of the workers were slaves or bonded,' said David.' some have been seen since the fire."  
'Mamma?' asked Emma.  
'They'll change their identities, get their chips removed or replaced with fakes, and move on free, nu er, ' Zoe replied.  
'Expensive,' remarked Mal.   
David smiled, "The Book was removing chips for free on request. I did a few dozen myself.'  
Simon said,'Of course, on every case it was medically necessary. High heat expose can make those chips toxic.' He showed his most charming and innocent smile, holding his husband's hand.   
'But the replacement chips are still real cash money.'  
'Now I would have thought that too, but identity chips were going real cheap. and there wer a lot of them around. From what I hear anyway.'  
‘Like someone, some group, expected a rush on chips?' asked Mal. ‘Huh.’  
‘Maybe Rosie got one of them new chips, then?' asked Jayne.’Maybe she ain't kilt?'  
‘Or maybe she's goin bare. Carry ID is cheaper but the Feds look at it closer.' Mal pointed out.  
‘You still ain't chipped, are you, sir?' asked Zoe.  
'I'll let em check my papers, anytime.'  
'We should get ID for the kids, too, y'know.' Kaylee mused.   
  
‘They chipped Emma when she was born. I didn't get to object.' Zoe aid. Kaylee touched her friend's hand.  The chaos surrounding Emma's birth was still a hot memory.  
  
'So she's dead or she's someone else,' said Jayne. 'An that's the way of it. I'll be in my bunk.'  
‘He really liked her, reckon?' asked Kaylee.  
'Probably longest he's ever spend with a female, wan't crew,' said Zoe.  
'And now he will pine forever for his lost love,' said Emma.  
'You been readin Kaylee's romance books, nu er? Real life ain't like that. Love at first glance, princes on white horses. People come and go. Best you can hope for is your family.'  
  



	9. PAQUIN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew stop at Paquin to visit Kaylee's family. And pick up an unusual cargo.

NINTH LEG ; PAQUIN

The warm sun woke Kaylee as the baby shifted restlessly in her makeshift crib. She slipped out of bed and brought her to the dresser, changed her diaper and slid quietly back into bed while her husband slept on.  
As her daughter nursed, she looked out the window at the day beginning. Her father was already returning from the barn, where he had opened the doors for the cattle to walk to their meadow after milking. He carried a bucket of feed for the chickens which he scattered in their pen.

  
She could hear her mother downstairs in the kitchen, and smell coffee from the trees her brother had planted with the money he got instead of a fancy wedding when he married the el-Rahbi girl. The marriage hadn’t worked, but he was doing well with the coffee plantation.

  
She shifted her gaze to her husband. He looked so young when he was asleep. Over forty, not much younger than her Daddy, but asleep his angry bitter look was washed away. He snorted and turned towards them, his big hand caressing her thigh.  
The baby was asleep again, too. Kaylee kissed the red hair that was starting to curl as it got longer. Derry had had a brown thatch from the day he was born, but BabyGirl had nothing but ginger fuzz until she was a year old. Both had striking blue eyes though. Their daddy’s legacy, since her own family ran to brown or hazel eyes. The baby yawned, releasing her nipple, and settled in for a nap.

  
‘Yeah, leave your mother all lopsided,’ she whispered. Moving carefully so as not to wake Mal, she returned the child to her crib.  
‘Mornin, lil mama.’  
‘Hey. Hope we didn’t wake you. You was deep in it.’  
’No, just started thinking it was time to wake and here you beat me to it.’  
‘You sleep real deep here. Better than on Serenity.’  
‘Do I? Funny, sleeping better away from home.’  
‘Yeah. You don’t wake in the night. Or get up and walk around.’  
‘Wouldn’t be polite in someone else’s home.’  
A breeze stirred the thin cotton curtains. The scent of the farm blew in. ‘That’s nice, ain’t it? All them smells? Grass and fruit blossoms.’  
‘The cow midden, the chicken coop.’  
‘Reminds me of …’ Mal stopped.  
‘Of Shadow? Of your ma’s ranch?’  
‘Reckon.’ More footsteps passed the door to Kaylee’s childhood room. They had pushed two beds together, once used by Kaylee and her older sister, but Mal was too long and had to curl his legs a bit to fit. ‘The smell of coffee too. Ma gave everyone coffee and steamed milk at breakfast. And porridge or congee. And boiled eggs.’  
‘Mum will just do fresh milk with the coffee. I used to love it, sometimes straight from the cow before Daddy made the milking machines. Can’t touch it now, course. I hope Emma  and the kids don’t get intolerant of milk.’  
‘It’s a good life here.’  
‘The farm keeps us. And Daddy has that little bush lot for retirement money. But he just scrapes by with the machine shop. Not enough outworlders needing his help and most of the locals is pretty handy. Also just about as broke as us.’  
‘Not much scope for you.’  
‘Flying is more innerestin. Meeting new folks all the time. Seeing new places.And keeping Serenity in the sky is a challenge.’  
‘She’s a good ship.’  
‘She’s my good old girl.’  
’Near on seventy years she’s been flying. Sturdy.’  
‘We should get up.’  
‘I even like the smell of the manure.’  
‘Member them beeves we moved from Persephone? What a stink that was.’  
‘Just cause they was cooped up and confused. Not really a problem in the open air.’  
‘We should get up soon.’  
‘Yeah. Is she snoring again?’

  
There was a knock on the door. ‘Mummy, Capt’n, kin I go fishing with Wray and En-lai?’  
‘We’ll talk at the breakfast table. Have you washed?’  
‘Course! Pits, bum, face, hands,’ as if an eight year old could’t be trusted to keep himself clean.  
‘Go down to breakfast. I’ll be right down.’  
‘We hafta get up.’  
‘I ain’t had my morning kiss yet.’ Which took a few more minutes than planned and left them both a little breathless.  
‘Ready for the day?’  
‘Gotta wash up first. She still napping?’  
‘Can I wash you? ‘  
‘We’re already gonna be the last ones down.’

  
Kaylee poured water from the pitcher into the convenient basin. She gave herself a fast sponge bath and tossed on underclothes and a pretty floral dress from the closet. “I haven’t worn this in fifteen years. Look it still fits.”  
Mal still only dressed in his khaki trousers, embraced her as they both faced the dresser mirror. ‘You never change. Still my smiley lil mei mei.’  
‘Mmmph. I’m going down now. If she wakes bring her, if not leave the door open so we can hear her.’

“Mr. Frye’s gotta contract for us, sir.’  
Mal was leaning on the pasture fence, looking at the young steers browsing on the green meadow. Two smaller cows nuzzled their calves and an elderly horse leaned against a tree covered in pink blossoms, scratching.  
‘Peaceful, ain’t it,Zoe? Like nothing ever happened. No war, no Unification, no Alliance.’  
Zoe waited silently.  
‘What kinda contract?’  
‘There’s a biological station bout thirty klicks up the road. Kaylee’s sister-in-law’s sister works there. They got a cargo to take to Paquin.’  
‘Biological?’  
‘I didn’t ask.’

 

Linda Mobuto was tall and slender, with a warm golden skin and black curls. She shrugged the hood of her clean suit off as she entered the reception area of Purple Emperor Biologicals. ‘Have you been offered tea?’ she asked.  
‘Yes, thank you,’ replied Zoe.’ The receptionist asked. I believe it will arrive momentarily.’  
‘Let’s go into my office then. Rand,end in the tea when it arrives.’  
She buzzed them into the inner offices through a different door than the one she had entered from. ‘This is a small enterprise. Pretty hands on with a very specialized workforce.’  
‘What do you do?’  
‘We breed bugs. Insects, spiders, moths and butterflies, mosquitoes.’  
’Skeeters?’  
‘They serve an important niche in the ecosystem. We also breed sterile males, so when yet another outbreak of malaria comes along, we are ready to break the life cycle.’  
Mal nodded. He’d seen malaria decimate troops during the Unification War. Without centrally run efforts to contain the outbreaks the results had killed as many as the enemy. And malaria, which had been fought to a standstill thousands of times over the centuries, continued to turn up. Unlike diseases with a short period between infection and death, it simmered quietly in unvaccinated populations, waiting to mutate and spread.  
‘Are mosquitoes the cargo?’  
‘Something much prettier. You’d be carrying Monarch butterflies to Greenleaf. And they would be carried as pupae, so there should be no difficulty.’  
’Sounds almost too easy.’  
‘Well, yes. And not too bulky either. We expect that you will be able to deliver with a 97% success rate. That is that 97% of the pupae will be viable on landing. That’s our success rate here at the butterfly farm.’  
‘What might cause the success rate to be lower?’  
‘Not keeping the pupae in the proper conditions of warmth and humidity. But those are basically well within the comfort zone for human beings too. And if the butterflies emerge too soon, they could damage themselves trying to fly in a contained space, or starve if there is no food available.’  
‘How long do they stay as pupae?’  
‘About nine to fourteen days. That’s not too predictable, and we would be loading three day olds — so you’d want to deliver within a week, to be safe.’  
The receptionist knocked and brought in a tray with tea and cups.  
‘This is from the tea plantations on Greenleaf where you will be delivering the butterflies. They spend their winters in those mountains.’  
‘Perhaps we can find a cargo of tea there when we’ve dropped off yours.’

Dr.Mobuto would not have the cargo ready for four more days. She invited Mal and Zoe to visit the laboratories where they grew their crops and was pleased when they asked if they could bring the children.

They returned the next day, and while Mal negotiated fees and Zoe discussed the specialized care that might be needed, Kaylee and her mother supervised a visit for Emma, Derry and three of the Frye cousins.  
The kids were enthralled by the tour, and En-lai was particularly proud of being allowed to test a new mosquito repellant, a test that entailed sticking her coated arm into a sealed tube filled with dozens of the pests. That the repellant turned out to be inadequate didn’t seem to bother her, and the lab workers were happy to give her antihistamine cream to soothe the itch.

Kaylee spent much of her time with her father, helping him with the few jobs he had been able to find and updating him on developments in their field that she had learned and in some cases invented. She was particularly proud of how she had increased the efficiency of Serenity’s HVAC system by using the ship’s grey water as a coolant.

 

The Fryes had a laissez-faire attitude to what the children got up to. On the whole, if they showed up at meals and didn’t cause too much destruction, they were not watched too closely. Derry joined the younger group happily. They ranged from about four to around ten, boys and girls together, with the older ones sometimes helping the littlest ones join in the play and sometimes spelling off to watch them while the older kids found more complicated games.

Emma’s long distance relationship with the Frye girls became tighter. They were a quiet well-mannered gang of hellions. And Emma quickly emerged as their leader, abetted by River who fit happily in with the much younger girls. When the girls came up with some fantastically nefarious plan, it was River who filled in the details.  
‘ _Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there_!’ she would say.

Jayne spent some time in the little town nearby, where there was a brothel, but mostly he visited Mrs. Frye, helping with household tasks. ‘I think he was well-trained by his own Ma,’ she remarked to Kaylee. ‘He does a nice job with dishwashing and with weeding.’  
‘We don’t need much weeding on _Serenity_ , but he is very thorough about dishes.’ Kaylee mused. ‘Doesn’t stop him from complaining.’  
‘He tells me he does more laundry and dishwashing that anyone else.’  
’No, we all have the same … well, we do use chore tickets when we play Tall Card, and Jayne is not real good at Tall Card.’

Zoe spent a lot of time sunbathing, not realizing that her chosen private spot had been noticed by some of Kaylee’s older brothers and cousins.

Mal went riding.

 

The live-bio containers for the butterfly pupae were as tall as Jayne and easily two meters square.  
’Twenty can of Butterflies. How many bugs are we carryin?’ he asked.  
’Nearly a million , give or take,’ Purple Emperor’s shipper replied. ‘We sell ‘em by weight.’  
‘Let’s get’m safe to their new home,’said Mal. ‘River take us out of this world.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daddy Lee's 'little bush lot', would be ready for timber harvest after 25 years.   
> Newly terraformed worlds would have little in the way of forests, making timber a valuable crop. Substitutes could be bamboo, concrete and cement, metal. But not plastics.  
> Newly terraformed worlds with no ancient deposits of vegetation to form petroleum. No plastics, no gasoline, no artificial fibres, no asphalt.... 
> 
> The bush lot is Mr. Frye's pension.


	10. GREENLEAF

GREENLEAF  
  
  
The trip to Greenleaf would be a milk run, and Mal was already on the Cortex, hammering out a contract with the tea planters in the cool equatorial hills.

_Serenity_ was purring, running smoothly after the extra pampering she had from Daddy Frye, and Kaylee had little to do, so she spent her time chatting with River, playing with the children and painting the last few passenger cabins.  
‘The bunkie needs work too, but we ain’t had nobody looking for a cheap ride in yonks. We kin charge more if the cabins look fancy.’  
She painted the walls a warm blue and was repapering the shoji screen doors. The beds had almost new soy latex foam mattresses, but Kaylee pulled out her serger and made new covers from some of their cargo of linen fabric,   
‘I’ll be looking for some cloth for duvet covers too when we land. The linen is good for sheets but too plain.’  
‘Wax merry in mood indigo.’ said River. ‘Fixatives the problem. Nobody has a urinary tract infection though. No need to piss away our money.’  
As often happened, there were blank looks around the dinner table.   
  
The trip may have been a milk run but landing on Greenleaf was difficult. River had no problem with the actual setdown, but the bureaucracy made Mal testy.   
‘Drug smugglers,’ explained Simon. ‘Greenleaf grows so many plants that are used to produce important drugs. Or very rare drugs. Ones that cannot be synthesized yet. But because too many workers were taking clippings home and growing them on, the producers engineered plants genetically crafted with traceable tags and patented. So now they inspect every ship for contraband.’   
‘But we’re landing!’  
‘Put the fear of God into the potential smugglers, sir. Get us antsy when they don’t need to work too hard at the search. Also they now have a record of what we bring in. And a record of what we sell here.’  
‘So it gets easy to tell if we are flying with more cargo than we declare. Cute.’    
‘I’ll deal with the red tape, sir.  You do better with getting an export cargo.’  
Mal knew he was being controlled but realized that Zoe would be more efficient with the customs inspectors than he would be. He left the bridge where he had taken the inspectors’ wave for his own cabin.  
But there he found Kaylee and their children. Since she had her machine out anyway, she was measuring Derry and BabyGirl for new clothes. ‘We got so much cloth it makes sense to make instead of buy, capt’n. I could make you a couple shirts too.’   
  
  
They heard a commotion in the cargo bay.  
As they looked down from the catwalk a slurry of orange wings rose up and fluttered around them.  
A customs inspector lay flat on his back on the grilled floor, stunned, possibly unconscious. Falling, he had knocked some of the biocontainers from thier securing ties. One had broken open, scattering bright green pupae like peridots across the floor and through the grates.  
And some of the Monarchs had emerged. The bay seemed full of silk scraps struggling on new wings.   
River stepped in from the bridge, looking solemnly at the chaos. She reached into her topknot pulling out some combs and releasing  her waist length hair. Swing her head, she danced down the steps and onto the piled boxes and crates. Were the Monarchs dancing with her or was she dancing with them?  
The baby crowed her delight in the scene. ‘Bud! Bud!” she cried. “Butterfly,’ her mother corrected her softly.   
  
Jayne was less impressed with the sight. He moved swiftly to th open door and slammed it shut, keeping the butterfly cargo from escaping.   
The noise broke the spell. David got Simon’s red case from the infirmary, while the doctor checked the customs man for concussion. His colleagues gather nearby, clipboards clamped to their bosoms.   
‘Told them not to climb on the cargo.’ Zoe said calmly to Mal. ‘told them they could check from the catwalk.’  
Derry had joined the doctor and his patient. ‘Will he need a cast too, Yīshēng shūshu?’‘I don’t think so,’ Simon replied.’But he’s very lucky that he doesn’t.’

  
The groggy inspector looked into two pairs of blue eyes. The doctor’s sapphire eyes snapped with annoyance, while the child waved a blue fibreglas cast at him. “Hey, sign my cast, mister? I fell off the cargo, too.’ The inspector groaned and closed his eyes.  
  
Simon shooed the boy away. He gave instruction to the rest of the inspection team. ‘Keep him awake for the next 12 hours. Any nausea or dizziness, take him to ER for a scan. And get him some prescription analgesics, he’s going to be very bruised and sore.’  
the inspectors hurried their fellow out to their van and disappeared.   
‘So he fell?’ Mal asked Zoe.  
‘Yep.’  
‘Tripped on the ropes?’  
‘Looks like.’  
‘He was pert close to a hidey-hole.’  
‘Was he?’  
‘Good work, Zoe. Okay anybody know how to capture butterflies?’  
  
As it developed no one on the crew knew how to capture the escapees. When the customers came to collect their cargo, they just laughed.   
‘Don’t worry about it. There are going to be released as soon as we're sure we got full weight. And Dr. Mobutu is reliable as sunrise and sunset.  A few hundred more or less won’t make any difference.’  
When they opened the large cargo doors to unload the Purple Emperor cargo, there was a rush of orange wings into the sunshine. All over the dusty industrial waste of the dockyard , spacers and navvies stopped to gaze at the cloud of beauty as it swirled up and away to freedom.    
  



	11. SPACE BAZAAR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unusual happenings at the Post Office and a couple of fancy dressers.

SEVENTH LEG  
 SPACE BAZAAR  
  
  
Inbound-     homeopathic medicines  
        counterfeit electronics from dwarf craftsmen  
        knives and axes   
        grain , herbs and prepared foods bound for Silverhold.  
        linen cloth and shirts - private cargo  
        luxury food stuffs for wealthy worlds  
  
  
'Remember this place, Simon?' asked Kaylee.  
Simon blushed, listening to the barkers's spiel about alien lifeforms. "I think I insulted you here, right?"  
"Yep, told me I was the only available woman who wasn't married, professional or your sister.'  
"Will you ever forgive me for that?'  
'Hells bells, Si, I forgave you before the sun went down. Or possibly before the day lights were dimmed. I just like teasing. You are such an easy mark.'  
David said, ' Your mouth does go talking, honey. You once told me you'd love me even more if I had no teeth.'  
‘It was a joke! And I was covered in bite marks at the time.'  
'True.  You were careful about sitting down for a few days.'  
'Vampire.'  
'Vampyre, please, I am a classy kinda biter.'  
'Keep it in your bunk, boys,' laughed Kaylee. 'We're here for the post.'  
'We got a strange parcel here once too.,' remembered Simon.  
'Yeah,' Kaylee sighed. 'I wonder if Amnon is still postmaster?'  
  
But the name above the door was S. Majumar, although there was still a mazuzah nailed up by the entrance.  
'Be right with you, darlings!' came a cheerful voice from behind a curtain backing the post office counter.  
The postmaster emerged, swathed in a scarlet and gold sari and  with cascades of glittering golden jewelry tinkling every time he moved. He was heavily made up and wore his waist-length hair oiled and curled.  
  
'Hello, my darlings! What can Dearie do for you today?'  
'Dearie?' asked Kaylee.  
'Sudir Majumdar, your lovely and charming postmaster. Me.' He looked the three over sharply. 'Just in from the Black, cargo transport, you,' pointing a beautifully manicured finger at Kaylee, 'work with machinery, engineer? mechanic? But you two are too sweet for longshoremen. Although I do love a nice big longshoreman.'  
Simon said,'We're looking for any mail for _Serenity_ out of Persephone. Names would be Reynolds, Frye, Washburne, Chen, Cobb or Tam. I'm Doctor Simon Tam.' He held out his chipped hand as identification.   
Dearie grasped it and turn it over to peer at his palm. 'You're in from Dyton and before that Harvest. Passengers? You work with the Flying Doctors.'  
Kaylee gasped,' You read that on his palm?'  
Dearie laughed and kissed Simon's hand. 'No. But I do have a real paper letter here for the lovely doctor on Flying Doctor letterhead. It just arrived on the  Brutus…. and I was sorting when you arrived.'   
There was a mischievous glint in his black eyes. 'Give me a moment and I'll check for more. But it does take a while when I get in a large post. You may be best to return tomorrow.'  
“Any older posts?’ asked David.  
‘ _Serenity_? Under the S…yes, a package for Jayne Cobb; is that you, my lovely greasemonkey? and a fat envelope for Captain Reynolds: some sort of Registered documents that started on Sihohn and seem to have chased you all over the Verse for nearly a year.’  
‘No, I’m Kaylee Frye. Can I sign for Jayne and for the other papers?’  
‘For Ms. Cobb, just hold your chip to the recorder; but this Registered has to be picked up by Captain Reynolds.’  
Kaylee thought. ‘Does it look like an arrest warrant?’  
Dearie’s laugh tinkled through the post office. ‘Ooh, you spacers are such scamps! It’s not from Justice nor from the Revenue if it comes to that. The return address is Sihohn Madrassa. Is the good Captain planning a second career as a Companion?’  
  
  
Jayne’s package was, as usual, from his mother, the ever-indulgent Radiant Cobb. This time it was a sweater knit in a series of violets and purples and was somewhat too large even for the massive mercenary.   
Although Space Bazaar was kept at a steady 30 degrees, he wore the sweater all the next day, turning redder and sweatier as the hours passed. Kaylee made a capture of him modelling it for his mother. And another of young Derry rising out of it, broken arm held high, since Radiant adored the rambunctious little boy.   
  
Mal stopped at the post office on his way home from selling off a good portion of the linen cloth they had purchased on Harvest. Opening the document on the spot, his face turned grim, silencing even the expressive postmaster.  
  
Dinner talk was of the days adventures. Jayne got a lot of ribbing about his gift, although the good natured insults basically went over his head. Anything his mama did was perfect in the eyes of Radiant Cobb’s boy.  
Simon and David had spent some time in the drug bazaar, but where the doctor was buying meds to restock his kit, including some new formulas for River, the nurse was trading in the herbal remedies he had bought on Dyton.  
Dyton grew very little, not even enough to feed her population, and certainly not fripperies like herbs for traditional remedies. But they imported, traded and exported on a grand scale and the space left by the offloaded linen was filled by ginger, belladonna, turmeric, various mints, ginseng, pennyroyal, lungwort, digitalis, lily and rose extracts and litre upon litre of exotic oils.   
Kaylee looked very disappointed that there are no cannabinoids on this trip. After her experience with alcoholic beverages that were ‘mostly apples’ she had sworn off drinking forever. At least until the next batch of InterEngine Wine was ready for decanting: In about a week.   
  
After dinner, still in the ultraviolet garment, Jayne composed a letter of thanks to send home. Careful still not to make his path traceable, he would pass the letter with the captures enclosed to a friendly outbound freighter which would post it a few stops away from Space Bazaar.   
  
Kaylee had put the children to bed, giving BabyGirl a bottle of cow’s milk from the boxes Zoe had added to the kitchen supplies. The tiny redhead glared at her mother and turned her back, sucking on the bottle in a marked manner.  
‘I’m  still the terrible mother, capt’n,’ she reported. ’But at least she took the bottle tonight. I’ll check in on her in half an hour.’  
‘I can do it if you don’t want the stink eye again.’  
‘Oh she’ll be asleep, she just wants me to know that she’s mad at me. ‘  
‘Can’t wait for her to start talking. She’ll have lots to tell us, that one.’  
Kaylee sighed and lay down on the chesterfield. River and Jayne were at the table playing Tall Card. Jayne was winning at the moment because River was building up her store of unwanted chores to dump on him when she got tired of the game. In a dozen years, Jayne had never won a Tall Card wager with River.  
Mal was reading the documents he had received from the Sihohn Madrassa. His face had settled into  grim lines his wife had not seen in years.  
‘A letter from Inara?’  
‘No, well, yes but that’s not… Her letter is just to say goodbye. Would you..?’  
‘No, it was addressed to you. It’s personal. I understand.’

She and Mal had been married for nearly ten years now. Simon and David had been together almost from the time David had been assigned by the Flying Doctors and had married a few months ago.   
Kaylee had loved Inara too. Mal may have chosen Kaylee after Inara had left Serenity to end her days teaching at the Madrassa where she had trained but Kayee was open hearted enough to accept that love and not exclude others. And if her husband had loved another from time to time, well, she had enjoyed sleeping with Simon until their intense affair burned itself out.    
  
‘The Housemistress wrote too. The letters were registered because she’s Nara’s executor. She left most of her estate to the kids.’  
‘To Derry and Emma?’  
‘And BabyGirl.  She wants a fund ready for them to get educated. She died before we took up with Perse’ outfit.’  
‘That was real thoughtful.  I don’t think we’ve talked bout educatin the kids. They’re mostly gettin their lessons from us.’  
‘But Emma’s doin real well in the Federal exams. Ahead of her age cohort.’  
‘D’ya think any of the kids’ll go on after their Twelves?’  
‘I was thinking about going to Academy fore the War. Warn’t sure what to do. Agricultural Sciences? Maybe get some theory behind the practicals of ranching and farming. My ma had an academic diploma.’  
‘Simon and David both have qualifications. Zoe?’  
‘Joined the Forces straight after her Twelve. She was ship born and wanted to try livin dirt side for a change. Jayne…I some doubt he’s qualified. Doubt he ever did his Eight, never mind Twelve.’  
‘I liked school. I liked the stories in Languages and History and Social Science. And all the math stuff was real useful when I was helping Daddy in his shop. Didn’t like the biology stuff much, but I did okay on the exams. Got my Twelve, well, mostly.’  
‘There’s another bit. She’s arranged that if any of the kids want it, there’s a full scholarship at the Madrassa, if they want to become Companions.’  
‘Emma’s eleven. Nara told me she started trainin at twelve.’  
Mal stiffened. 'At twelve?'  
‘No. Ceremonies and languages and deportment, music, psychology— lots of psychology. An politics and business and history. Dancin.’  
  
‘When does the whore training start?’  
‘Theory at fifteen, practical at eighteen after the Companion’s debut. What? We talked a lot. An that was four years later than I was.’  
‘Not right. And how can a girl choose at twelve?’  
‘Or boy.’  
Mal looked up.  
‘They do train boys as well, bout five percent of Companions, Nara said.’  
‘Well, I ain’t havin with my kids goin to whore school.’  
‘They’d be lots more respectable than us if they do, captain,’ his wife replied. ‘An they can take their training to Academy and do a diploma in Political Science or in Psychology. Nara was considering doin a diploma fore she decided to travel with us.’  
‘She never mentioned.’  
‘She told me after Miranda, after she went back to the Madrassa to teach, after she got sick. She was glad she chose _Serenity_ , Malcolm. She told me her happiest time was when you and she was together.’  
Mal’s face was hard to read. His wife wrapped herself around him. ‘I’m glad you could give her that. She was so shiny, so sweet, so smart,’  
Mal lay back against the chesterfield cushions. Kaylee could see how close to tears he was.   
  
Zoe was pleased by Inara’s bequest to Emma. She had been surprised that when she had been exiled immediately after her daughter’s birth, Inara had been the baby’s major caregiver. Even on her worst days in prison she had been confident that her friends would love and protect her baby.  
’It was most practical for me to be her foster,’ Inara had explained when they were reunited. ‘Kaylee was busy with her work and with Simon. Simon was busy with Kaylee and was not confident with babies. River might have taken her apart to see how she worked, and Mal …. actually Mal might have done a great job. He did his share, maybe more, of feeding and cuddling. To be fair, so did Jayne, come to think.’  
Zoe had laughed imagining the huge mercenary cuddling her tiny girl. Emma crowed and waved her limbs. ‘Was Jayne good to you, Emma girl?’ The baby looked around at the name. ‘You’re right! She likes him.’  
Inara made her most loving smile. ‘She knows we all love her. Best of all, she went to you immediately, even though the two of you had only a few hours together.’  
  
‘She was a lonely woman,’ Zoe said to Mal and Kaylee.  
‘Inara?’ said Jayne. ‘With all them johns clamourin for to get in her bed?’  
‘She was lonely, Jayne. Perhaps she had a few friends at the Madrassa. I hope she knew we were her family.’  
  
Kaylee told the doctor about the bequests. ‘Full scholarships? That’s very generous. But surely the children couldn’t study while on board? They’d be on Sihohn, except for vacations. Even then Serenity might not be able to pick them up depending on jobs.’  
‘And then there’s the whorin practice. Do they stay on Sihnohn for that?’ asked Jayne.  
Simon and Kaylee spoke simultaneously. ‘They graduate…’ ‘It’s not only about…’  
‘Don’t matter,’ said Mal. ‘The kids won’t be join to Companion School.’  
‘Speak for your own, sir,’ said Zoe.’ Emma is old enough to have an opinion.’  
Mal glowered at the first mate. ‘You…’  
‘She ain’t your girl, sir.’  
Mal stamped out of the Commons.  
  
Zoe told Emma about the scholarship and let her research the Madrassa and the Companions’ Guild on the Cortex. The sites emphasized the glamour of the profession and the intellectual training students received. Simon explained the other aspects of the profession. He had, like most young men of his class, had his sexual initiation from a Companion.   
‘She was very good at her job. Between her and your Aunt Kaylee, I almost convinced myself that I was not sly.’  
‘But you married David.’  
‘I love a lot of people, including you and your mother. But Davie is my wéiyī de zhēn'ài.'  
‘Do you love Jayne?’  
‘Huh. I respect his … talents, and I’m a little afraid of him, and he annoys me not a little. But, yes, I guess I love him.’  
‘As much as me?’  
Simon laughed, ‘Emma, you little minx! You’re too grown up to ask that question honestly. Don’t tease!’  
‘I don’t want a lot of people falling in love with me. I want my wéiyī de zhēn'ài. Like momma and Daddy. Like you and David.’  
  
But it was River who helped Emma to decide.  
They were running scenarios on the bridge.  
‘I researched my Academy very thoroughly before persuading my parents to let me go. All that held me on Osiris was Simon, and he was already at MedAcad. Not at home. Asteroid starboard.’  
‘Evading. Oh. I should have gone up not port.’  
‘We’re holed. Oxygen leak. Twenty cc’s per second.’  
‘Time to suit up and spacewalk. Leak at P966/LL40. We can patch it.’  
‘If you’d gone up- look, you would have hit that junkaroo— so good choice.’  
‘I love piloting.’  
‘It’s clean. The numbers work.’  
‘I like going fast.’  
‘Washburne. Sùdù èmó.’  
They laughed.

  
Emma told her mother that night she wanted to go to flight school like her father.   
  
  
Outside of the sale of linen cloth not much business was done at Space Bazaar. But the cloth sale was private, not for Perse’ employers, and Mal had coin to jingle when Zoe found a bargain price on several hundred metres of embroidered silk.   
The deal was brokered by the flamboyant postmaster, Dearie Majumder, who had taken a liking to her when she came by for any unreceived mail.   
  
Most of the crew’s contacts preferred dive bars as meeting places, but Zoe had arranged to meet Dearie's cloth seller in a family friendly cafeteria.  
To fit in with the customers she had changed from her usual leathers to a dashiki suit with her long hair tied in a turban. In the flowing pants and top, which disguised her holstered mare’s leg pistol, there was no hiding that she was a beautiful woman.  
  
The contact was also a woman, plump and cheerful. She was wearing a sundress that emphasized her considerable bosom. The dress may have been chosen to distract a male client, because she was disconcerted to meet Zoe.  
  
‘It’s my own design,’ she explained. ‘I’m in the fashion industry. Sometimes we get surplus…’  
‘Reckon. We do the job, don’t care much about the rest of the story.’  
‘Dearie will have told you it’s silk? The cloth was hand embroidered for a wedding party, but the whole family was arrested for human trafficking, including the bride. The marriage was called off. No one here will touch it, in case the trial goes in the family’s favour. But if you can take it to Ugarit Moon off New Canaan, there is a luxury market for it.’  
‘Doesn’t seem worth interstellar transport for a few dress lengths.’  
‘There’s five hundred metres in each bale. And there are twenty bales. The decoration is in gold and silver with some jewels, mostly pearls. The family’s original cost was fifty per metre. And only that low because the work was done by slaves.’  
‘Are you going to pay flat rate or a percentage?”  
‘I just want to get shut. This is tying up my capital.’  
The little woman’s  green eyes were calculating. Zoe considered. She doubted that woman had much capital tied up. The goods had probably been looted from the estate, whether by a servant or a constable was unimportant. She might even have been holding the cloth preparatory to making gowns for the wedding party.  
 Not likely any warrants were out for it. It was a clean cargo.  
‘Any special handlin needed?’  
‘As long as it stays in the wrapping it shouldn’t get wet. Insect damage is always a possibility, but it’s new fabric.’  
‘Let’s take a look at the bulk of it. Our cargo bay can probably handle it, but we’ve still got a lot of foodstuffs for delivery to New Canaan. If there’s room, we’ll take it on a percentage. Thirty percent on the sale seem reasonable to you?’  
The fashionista dickered a little getting the fee down to twenty five percent, more than Serenity’s usual cut, and high enough to make Zoe suspect that the family was more powerful than was healthy.   
  
They strolled to the loft where the designer worked. Zoe wished young Derry was available to consult on the space available for the new cargo,  Derry’s knack for geometry  had led River to tutor him in the subject. The maths were fun for the pair,  but most clients were confused by having an eight year old pronounce judgement about cargo space. Especially since his actual reading skills were if anything a little behind his cohort.   
  
But the bales were compact enough that Zoe’s experience was all that was needed.   
‘I wouldn’t want to correct you but there are twenty three bales here. You said twenty.’  
‘I got those when the silk was delivered. I have no idea what to do with it. Ugly fabric and really hard to cut. I usually make a handbag out of new materials to see how they handle. It’s nasty.’  
Zoe inspected the swatch of fabric that had been partly removed from one of the three extra bales. It took all her practiced stoicism not to cheer.  
‘I could take those too. But I’d have to charge thirty firm on ‘em. The market is gonna be smaller and I might have to haul them further than Ugarit.’  
‘I’d be happy to have the ugly stuff out of my studio. Would you be willing to buy it outright?’  
‘I don’t do personal buying. We do buy outright from time to time, and we do have some cash right now if you are willing. Alliance scrip mostly. That okay?’  
‘I do most of my business in scrip, although I understand many like coin instead.’  
‘Depends on the colour of the market. This would be a straight purchase, receipts an everything.’  
They settled quickly and Zoe promised to pay 1500 for the 1500 metres of ugly fabric on pickup later that afternoon.  
The fabric was certainly ugly, but since it was used to make lightweight and highly effective body armour, looks were much less important that function.  It was hard to cut because it was neographene. Worth 100 in hard coin per metre on any Rim world.   
  
  



	12. THE NEW CANAAN RUN- Deadwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoe goes to the theatre. Simon gets shut of some potentially embarrassing cargo.

EIGHTH LEG  
DEADWOOD

Eight days from Space Bazaar

Deadwood Population : 1.57 million  
Terraformed : 2400  
Eighth planet from Blue Sun, orbited by Haven  
Businesses: Mining, Naturally Grown Produce Farming, Ranching, Vid Production

 

Inbound- silk, linen cloth, linen shirts, gems, processed foodstuffs, medical raw materials

 

Deadwood’s capital city had a surprisingly sophisticated spaceport for a Rim planet. But even more surprising there was no noticeable Alliance presence checking incoming or outgoing cargoes.  
  
Near the spaceport was a gated compound with an ornate wrought iron sign reading _'vIsIon entertaInment'_.  
'They make vids here for the Cortex nets,' Sou-fen Macharia told Kaylee as they exchanged gossip in a tea room near the port. Their husbands, Mal and Monty, were deep in discussion of new contracts and prices. Monty and _Pretty Baby_ were doing the New Canaan Run too, but in the opposite direction to _Serenity_.  
The women had been fast friends since before they had married. Both were mechanics and had met in a scrapyard in Frisco on Regina, Sou-fen's home world. When Mal and Kaylee attended their wedding, they had learned that Sou-fen's family was connected in some firmly unexplained way to the 14K Triad Tong. _Pretty Baby_ had prospered from the shady connection and Mal was careful not to ask too much about the cargoes she carried.  
Kaylee's eyes sparkled at the idea of show business glamour in such a nowhere spot. 'Why here?'  
'Not right sure. They was some films made for Corone Mining here whiles back, ads and recruitment and I reckon the makers thought the climate and landscapes were a good mix. ‘  
Kaylee looked out the tea room windows at the heavily treed mountains. Serenity had flown over a lake district with some large estates on the beaches on their approach to Capital . And while the city itself was barely bigger than a town, there was a good mixture of modern high-rise buildings in sterile squares, shady residential streets and older, slightly shabby retail streets. 'You could find most of what you needed here for a vid, eh?'  
'Well, Deadwood is a full planet. You got tropics and glaciers and oceans and beaches and deserts. Just a matter of getting to em, right? My cousin, Kwame Chen, handles security for one of the vid companies. He says they is working on a new kind of vid, hologrammic. Like 3-D but in the same room, not on a screen.'  
'That could be innerestin. Seen any vedettes around?'  
'Nobody top of the mountain, yet. Seen a few faces that look familiar.'  
'Fly the Black long enough, an yer gonna meet the same faces again and again.'  
'Nah. Nobody I could put a name too, but too good lookin for spacers,' she looked fondly over at her massive husband, whose full beard and flowing hair could not disguise that he was at best comfortable looking. Kaylee said nothing, admiring her own handsome man.  


Zoe and Jayne had visited a weapons dealer, picking up ammunition. Zoe waited outside the shop with their heavy purchases while Jayne went to get the mule from its parking spot. Two men, deep in conversation and gesticulating wildly, approached and the taller one bumped into her.  
Startled, Zoe's hand went to her pistol. The tall man raised his hands. 'My deepest apologies, madame. I was careless almost to blindness. Forgive this errant knave his wayward feet.'  
'And hands.' Zoe said, returning her mare's leg to its holster.  
'And hands,' the tall man said, smiling winsomely. Zoe grunted. She didn't trust winsome.  
The other man, only slightly shorter, bowed. 'Madame, my troublesome friend erred mightily but his fault was not in his stars but in his preoccupation with our converse. Might I too apologize for discombobulating you.' His blue eyes shone with humble apology.  
Zoe smiled politely. 'No harm. Watch your path in future.'  
The two men bowed in unison, both sweeping their hats off and sliding one leg forward gracefully. Zoe very nearly laughed.  
Jayne pulled up in the mule as the men came out of their bow. He looked blankly at the two men, somewhat gaudily dressed for Capital, then turned to Zoe.  
'K, Zo. Let's get this stuff back to the boat.'  
“Can we be of assistance, madame?’  
‘We got it.’  
The taller man had already started to pick up the cloth shopping bag, not expecting it to be filled with steel and lead. He stumbled and Zoe caught him as he lurched into her.  
‘Makin a habit, mister?’  
‘Again my most humble apologies. Would you accept a ticket to our show this evening to make up for our behaviour?’  
‘No need.’  
‘What kinda show?’  
‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ Jayne looked blank again. ‘It’s a classic comedy about love and marriage.’ Still blank. ‘We are with the Sock and Buskin Shakespeare Company out of Paquin.’  
‘Playacting,’ explained Zoe.  
The shorter man pressed a pair of tickets on Zoe, who was enough nonplussed to take them. The men bowed elaborately again and moved on.

  


‘What ya gonna do with those?’

‘See the play if time allows. Take one of the girls. Kaylee might like some time off.’  
The ammunition packed on the mule, they returned to _Serenity_.

None of the female crew wanted to go to the theatre that night. Kaylee was happily involved with a tricky upgrade to the ship’s plumbing, Emma was working on an essay for her Level Eight social contracts class. River had had a bad day and was in a drug-induced sleep.  
‘I don’t want to leave her,’ said Simon. ‘Perhaps the captain would attend with you?’  
‘I got calls to make for our next stop, ask Jayne or David.’  
David responded enthusiastically. ‘I love live theatre. There was none really when I was growing up. Never saw a play till I was in nursing school but moving about since I never really have a chance.’  
‘I’m, sorry, honey. We’ll make more plans when River is…’  
“It’s okay, 爸. I never said.’  
‘Geez, quit with the googoo eyes already, ‘ complained Jayne.

  


David hired a rickshaw to take them to the theatre. The children watched as he gallantly handed Zoe, in a flowing gown and short cape in. 

  


They were surprised to find that Deadwood actually had a theatre district. Five marquees advertised live or recorded performances from their own _Much Ado About Nothing_ to an _All-Girl Revue_.  
‘Something for every taste,’ said Zoe.  
David pointed at the broadsheets outside the All-Girl Revue. Half advertised the night’s performance and the others an All-Boy Revue. ‘All tastes.’

  


Their tickets turned out to be a box quite near the stage. ‘That actor must have felt some apologetic,’ said Zoe, surprised.  
‘Or these expensive seats are harder to sell and having a beautiful woman on display in them is good for business.’  
‘Iphm,’ muttered Zoe. ’That part of your beside manner with your patients?’  
David laughed. ‘Early on, yes. But in the labour room, I need all the goodwill I can get. You’d be amazed how hard an unhappy woman can punch, even during a contraction.’  
Although they had crewed together for several months they did not know each other well. Before the screen came down for advertising, Zoe learned about David’s home world , Turtle Island, which had been heavily settled by North American Indians and worked hard to keep up their important traditions and languages. 

  


David learned less of Zoe’s background, except that the Alleynes had been traders for generations, first on Earth-that-Was, sailing those oceans, then as spacefarers throughout the ‘Verse.

  


“We scattered with the War. I saw my brother Alcibides just after we was demobbed. He sold _Serenity_ to the captain.’  
‘Must have been quite a sales pitch.’  
‘Weren’t the ship he wanted us to have. He had a Scarab, bigger and in better shape. But Mal saw that beat-up Firefly and fell in love. ‘Course he was still some shell-shocked at the time.’  
‘But you went along with him?’  
‘No place better to go. No one better to go with.’ Zoe was silent, thinking of the one she had lost, long before Serenity Valley. ‘Mal had the cash and I knew the business. Worked.’  
David knew there was more to the the strange relationship between the captain and his first mate, but the advertising screen had descended and the theatre became too noisy for chat.  
Halfway through the commercials, Zoe stiffened. ‘Good thing we didn’t bring River,’ she said. David was puzzled, but the Fruity Oaty Bars commercial was too loud to ask.  
The screen rose and the performance began. David was entranced by the graceful language, updated from the millenium-old English of Shakespeare. When Dogberry made his appearance, he nudged Zoe.’Older and fatter, but he could be the captain’s cousin.’ David made a capture of the actor as he protested against Conrad’s libels. 

 

Zoe had a little trouble deciding which actors were the two men who had given them tickets. But at intermission, a card was delivered to the box inviting them backstage for the opening night party

  


They made a handsome couple as they entered the green room backstage. A waitress gave each a glass of shimmerwine and waved them to the buffet. ‘Dogberry’ was already there, his part having ended well before the denouement of the play. He bowed to Zoe, and gave David a lascivious glance.  
‘Definitely not the captain,’ she murmured.  
David was well worth a second look. Taller than Zoe, his glossy black hair was loose down his back,reaching nearly to his waist. He was as always clear eyed with a fine coppery skin. In a ‘verse where Asian and European heritage dominated, and Zoe’s African features were not uncommon, most people could not identify David’s ancestry. 

  


 

He had complemented Zoe’s evening gown with a fine wool broadcloth suit and had borrowed a silk waistcoat from Simon, that laced up the front allowing room for his broader chest.  
Dogberry asked how they had enjoyed the play, politely moving his glance to Zoe.  
‘Got hard to follow in places. Reckon the customs have changed more than the language.’ she said.  
’We actually use a translation that’s less than a century old. I don’t think anyone would understand the original language at all. For example, at one point, my character wants to explain to Leonato that he is a man to be respected, with roots in the community. He says ‘I wear fine silk vests’ in our version, but in the original he says ‘I have two gowns.’ which would just sound odd. And the pronunciation!’  
‘We travel a lot, and we hear different dialects on every world, even on moons that trade with a larger planetary population,’ said David.  
‘Are you military personnel then?’  
Zoe pressed her foot against David’s. ’No, traders. We’re doing the New Canaan Run; mostly agricultural products.’  
‘Footloose, dear lady,’ said a voice behind her. The actor who had given her the tickets had moved up behind them. Zoe was annoyed with herself for being surprised by his approach. ‘We are travellers ourselves. Indeed, most of us are actually Travellers from Earth that Was.’  
‘Gypsies,’ said Zoe.  
His voice chilled. ’No. The Roma are our friends, or at least, not our enemies, but we Travellers are a different nation,’  
‘Thank you for the tickets, you played Don John, but I don’t believe I know your actual name,’ she said, changing the subject both from the touchy question of Roma versus Traveller and from the business of her crew.  
‘Our names are as changeable as our roles,’ the actor said. ‘Don John is my name while I am playing him.’  
‘Not something to boast about, being the villain of the piece.’  
‘From my point of view, I am the hero, trying to bring justice to an unfair society that ignores me for my birth while praising other no better men that hold a higher social position.’  
David smiled, ’Every man is the hero in his own story.’  
‘Exactly! So every night I work to bring down this unfair society, and every night sadly I fail.’ he signalled the waitress for more wine. ‘But some night, I may win my battle.’  
Zoe laughed.

  


Dogberry wandered over deliberately, bringing a bottle of shimmer wine.  
‘Top you?’ he enquired archly.  
David proffered his glass. ‘This is very interesting. I’ve never been backstage before.’  
‘Would you care for a tour? Most of the backstage is still lit. Maybe you can raise the curtain?’ Still holding the bottle the two men departed.  
‘Was he saying what I thought?’ asked Zoe.  
‘Probably. He finds a boy in every port, often several.’  
‘Well, he’s a good looking man, but David is married.’  
’Never bothered Joey before.’  
‘And David’s relationships are no business of mine.’  
‘As long as they don’t do it in the road and scare the horses, eh?’  
Conversation drifted after that and Zoe was waiting impatiently when David returned, a little breathless.  
Zoe’s arched eyebrow was enough to make David blush. ‘No, I’m still a faithful husband, although that guy can be pretty beguiling,’ David paused,smiling. ‘But I solved a problem Simon was upset about so I think he’ll forgive me a few kisses.’

  


“I found a buyer,’ David told Simon in the privacy of their cabin.  
Simon looked relieved.  
‘One of the actors will take the the gum off our hands and there will even be a small profit.’  
‘Actors have money?’  
‘He says so. I have to meet him this afternoon at his rooms,’ David paused. ‘D’you want to come along?’  
‘I want to stay out of this entirely. Buying that stuff was a stupid move on your part.’  
‘Yes, honey, you’ve told me. Several times.  
‘Funny thing is, this guy looks a lot like the captain. They could be brothers, if the captain had a heavier, sly brother.’  
‘Huh. Did you have to use your devastating sex appeal on him to sell the stuff?’  
‘He came to me, Simon! I din’t try anything, even pushed him away when…’  
‘When.’ Flatly.  
‘He kissed me. Which was weird, him so like Mal otherwise. But I told him politely I was married and he politely took his hands out of my pants.’ David kissed Simon’s cheek. ‘Besides you know I like my man small and perfectly formed.’  
‘I am not small, bao bei. I’m above average height. It’s just that all the other men on this ship are behemoths.’  
David captured his mouth and whispered. ‘I’m right about the perfectly formed part though, ain’t I?’  
Simon pushed him away.’Maybe I should come along to protect you from this Reynolds clone.’  
David lay back on the tidy bed.’Yeah, and if we decide an adventure would be fun….it’s up to you. From what I observed , he’s pretty impressive in that department.’  
‘I thought he was getting into your pants?’  
‘Well, I could tell he was very interested. But I think he’s a top.’  
‘Maybe I can change his mind.’  
Simon pulled David’s legs apart and stroked his cock with his own. ‘Or you can bottom for him and I watch.’  
‘You’re the boss, daddy.’  
‘Yes I am, baby boy. And I’ll come along tomorrow just because a daddy takes care of his boy.’

  


Simon and David barely made it back to the ship the next day before their scheduled takeoff. They missed supper and spent a quiet hour in the commons cuddled together, watching Mal read with the children until he shepherded them off to bed. 

  


When Mal returned, Simon gave him five hundred platinum. ‘We made a good sale today from the herbal medicine we picked up on Dyton Colony. I apologize for the Alliance scrip.’  
‘We allys need some trackable scrip to make us look respectable. No worries. ‘ He rubbed Simon’s shoulder. ‘Thanks. This is turning out a profitable voyage. The linen cloth and shirts went to a dry goods wholesale outfit and they want more if we can supply it. Your buyer like to be a future contact?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Simon met David Commanda Chen when he was assigned as his nurse under contract from the Flying Doctors, who visit Rim worlds that don't have a resident medical staff. They fell in love and married soon after.


	13. NINTH LEG - St Albans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strange climate makes for an unusual product. Serenity pays another visit to Tracey Smith's family.

NINTH LEG  
ST ALBANS

 

Inbound from Deadwood: - silk , gems, processed foodstuffs, medical raw materials, civil and industrial parts from Dyton Colony

 

We’re heading over to St Alban’s next. Gotta lead on some fine ice wines.’  
’Not a good luck place for us, sir.’  
‘Nowhere is. Our contact is Tracy Smith’s pa. His vineyard had a real good crop the year after we brought Tracy home, but he can’t move it. He distilled some of it too. Says the brandy is real good. Eight years in the cask. We can buy all we want or take the lot on consignment. ‘  
‘Brandy or moonshine, sir?’  
‘He made his own grapes into his own wine and his own wine into his own brandy.’  
’So no papers, then. Sir.’  
‘We won’t get the price we would with certs. But we won’t be paying what we would with cert, neither. We can do a taste test, too.’  
'Kaylee will like that.’  
‘Reckon she’s recovered from that apple cider she tried on Dyton.’  
‘Doc should test it for wood alcohol, too.’  
‘Fair point. that would be some useful paperwork.’  
’So cash or consignment?’  
‘I’m aiming to sell it all on Hera, but I ain’t got a buyer.’  
‘I’ll ask Perse if he knows anyone.’

Perseus Alleyne was unable to help. His employers did not deal in beverages, which were bulky for the value. He did pass the names of some hoteliers and restauranteurs, but told Mal to keep the company name out of it.  
’The Company can’t afford he deal in black market goods. We’d all be fired if that got out.’  
‘I’m your sub, Perse. Your the only one the Company can fire. An this is grey market only. The drink is the real thing just lacking in the paper department. Real eight year old St Albans icewine, bargain prices.’  
Press sighed. ‘Just keep my name out of it.’

A small man bounced up to Serenity’s entry, opening the door unannounced and letting in half a blizzard. 

‘ 谁离开他妈的开门？’ shouted Mal. scrambling down the companionway, pistol drawn. Jayne and Zoe were on the catwalk, guns aimed.

‘Hey, sis?’ said Theseus Alleyne. His hands came down as he heard safeties being snapped shut. ‘should I have made an appointment?’  
‘Sorry, 小弟, We had a problem a few yeas back and we normally have all the doors locked.’

Theseus had a peripatetic business, moving form one world to another, one community to another, turning vats of fats and vegetable oils from abattoirs and restaurants into bio-diesel fuel, an important product in a Verse with no petroleum. He had met the crew of Serenity by accident on Lazarus off Heinlein but their paths had not crossed since then. 

By setting up a table in the partially empty cargo bay, Serenity was able to accommodate Theseus, his wife and twins, to dinner that evening.   
The Alleyne children were pleased to meet their barely remembered cousin and all the children were glad of new playmates.   
Arrangements were made for all the children to gather at a petting zoo near the shipyards the next day, a suggestion from River who had been anxious to go ever since she learned of its existence.   
Over many cups of tea, the adults exchanged news, gossip, and tales of their adventures.  
Mal was very taken with Zoe’s younger brother. When they had met briefly before, he had been distracted by caring up legal matters related to the disappearance of a passenger, a homesteader who, it was discovered during the voyage, had impregnated his pre-teen daughter.   
In this more relaxed atmosphere, he found Theseus’ frank manner and entrepreneurial spirit much to his liking. 

‘The farming planets are best for buying stock to make bio-diesel, but they also make their own, so not much market. The biggest market is the terraforming companies. We do a regular run, but we’re always looking for new markets.’  
‘You may find New Canaan needs more biofuel than usual. They had a nasty earthquake that played merry hob with their own plants. And destroyed a lot of crops.’  
‘Was the central plant hurt?’  
‘Hard to tell. The cast didn’t have much info near in and when we left the system it was old news. A quake on a terraformin planet? It’s not news, it’s Tuesday, reckon,’ said Zoe.  
Mal grunted. ‘Our main cargo here is from Perse. You been in touch with him?’  
‘Not really. Not my favourite brother. I was the youngest and always the smallest kid. Good thing I had a big sis to protect me.’  
‘It was running your mouth that mostly got you into trouble,小弟.’  
‘Zoe protected me. Girls get their growth sooner’n boys, so she was bigger than our big brothers at the time. She slapped them into place.’ Theseus grinned. ‘Remember the time I talked Perse and Sock into a spacewalk just before we went into atmo?’  
‘At lest they had enough sense to untether before they got a fiery death.’  
‘They was some mad when Daddy had get a shuttle to pick ‘em up after he figured out where they was.’  
‘Daddy was madder. You hadda hide in the vents until Daddy cooled down.’  
‘I wasn’t hiding, I was stuck.’  
‘Unless you figured a way to use the jakes from the vents, you was hidin.’  
‘I admit it, I have never been a brave man.’  
‘My daddy says a smart man knows enough not to get into spots where bravery is necessary.’ Theseus’ son added.   
‘Yer daddy ain’t a fool , ‘ said Mal.’Verse’d be a safer place if’n more followed that advice.  
The entire crew stared at their captain.   
'What?’

Theseus had a few suggestions for disposal of the icewine and offered to call ahead to assure the potential customers of Serenity’s bone fides. He scoffed politely at a finder’s fee, but Zoe and her sister in law,more aware of the costs of raising children, quietly made and arrangement for half of one percent of the final price. 

 

It was winter on St Alban’s, as usual.  
The moon’s very short hot summers, less than four months above freezing, but those twelve weeks had temperatures in the thirties. Crops grew fast or not at all and the genetically crafted grapes that flourished in the short summer were very high in alcohol-producing sugars. 

Like most of the St Albans farmers Farrell Smith, father to Mal and Zoe’s dead comrade, Tracy, had grown for the local market, the miners and factory workers who could not grow their own fresh produce of afford imports. Smith had concentrated on small fruits, most bush crops that grew on new growth, avoiding losses when fruit bearing son growth froze in band winters. Most farmers sold their supplies cops to the canning and freezing company all owned by Blue Sun, which paid just enough to keep their suppliers coming back.   
Smith had come to grapes when his parish priest asked him to supply grape juice for communions. The fresh juice was unexpectedly popular, quickly finding a secular market which brought it to the attention of other congregations who asked for grape wine for their rituals.   
Smith learned to leave some of his grapes on the line past the first freeze of the winter, which dried the grapes and concentrated the sugars. Icewine was a luxury product, worth the cost of export to more prosperous worlds.   
While Mal and Smith discussed fees and costs, Kaylee and Tracy’s brother Rand waked down to the family graveyard to visit Tracy’s grave.

“Surprised the captain and Ms. Washburne ain’t coming,’ the boy said.’Seems you only knew him for a couple days.’  
‘We had sorta a moment,’Kaylee said,”I mean, nothin come of it, but it coulda…if… well he kinda panicked when the organleggers come after him.’  
‘Organleggers? Why were they after him?’  
Realizing that Mal and Zoe had been vague with the family about the exact circumstances of the trooper’s death, Kaylee gave a brief explanation of the events at Space Bazaar when they had received Tracy’ unresponsive body by maid and were followed by bounty hunters, looking for the precious organs he carried.   
She didn’t mention that Tracy had actually died of Mal’s bullet, fired as the hysterical youngster held her hostage . 

They passed an outbuilding on the way back from the cemetery. ‘That’s our distillery,’ Rand explained.’Wanna see?’

Kaylee was always fascinated by new kinds of equipment, and had been making her Inter-Engine Wine almost since she had joined the crew. She accepted the invitation with pleasure.  
Inside the shabby building shone. Tall stainless steel vats gleamed angles tubing sparkled. A steam disinfector purred in a corner, sanitizing glass bottles for the next batch of aged brandy. In contrast a second room held real wooden barrels still aging brandy in strict climate control. 

‘The ones with the red tags is ready to go, but the blue ones is older. This’ll be the good stuff. The Tracy batch from the year he died.’  
‘Y’all still miss him.’  
‘Mama does, mebbe daddy. I almost don’t remember him. He was in the last there years of the war, with your capt'n and first mate, right? An he only come home for a bit for he quarrelled with daddy and left again.Then you brought him back in a box. Eight years ago now. I’m twenty so I was three when he left the first time and twelve when he left again.’  
‘I only knew him for a few days,my own self. He had a real ingratiating manner.’  
‘Mmmm. I ain’t gonna speak ill, but Daddy more of less kicked him out both times he left. Reckon he were’nt willin to pull his weight. Allys looking for and easy berth’  
‘As a soldier?’  
“Didn’t say he was smart.’  
Kayla asked some questions about the distilling equipment and was told the Smiths threw out near ten percent of the brandy they distilled.  
“Well, I say, throw out. It gets sold as cleaning fluid. If somebody drinks it, it won’t kill’em but it’s got lot of fusel oil and other impurities. We could go with less, some distillers only toss one percent, but Daddy is fussy like that. You should try our potato vodka.’

‘This’ll put hair on the soles of your feet,’ boasted Farrell Smith, pouring a glass for Zoe and Mal, ‘And make childbirth a pleasure.’  
Mal tossed back the liquor and coughed as his throat caught fire. ‘What proof is this?’  
“One sixty six, but no worries. It’s so pure you cannot get a hangover. Have another?’  
‘No, no. I’d rather take my time. This is a proper sipping drink.’  
'We get the water from a glacial spring on our own property. They's some minerals in it will do your body good. When you’ve finish that let me give you a taste of my buffalo grass formula.’  
‘You make shine from grass?’ asked Zoe cautiously sipping her own glass.   
“Vodka,’ Farrel corrected.’ Just a few strands in the bottle to give a delicate whisper of hlavour. Tastes like the smell of a field ready for harvest.’

How are harvests these days, Mr. Smith?’ asked Mal.   
‘Farrel, please, sergeant. It’s been a little warmer past five years. That’s standard years, our orbit is twelve of those.’  
‘Closer to Red Sun?’  
‘Wobbly axis. St Alban’s has six month with the south hemisphere facing from the sun and eight month facing away repeatin through those twelve years.’   
‘So in twelve standard years you get fourteen summers?’  
‘Ten. But the ten further away is colder. Not famine cold but the Northern Glacier grows near to the equator. That’s why we we make our money in warm years, if we can.’  
‘You know you’d do better on consignment than cash.’  
‘Too much risk. I got school fees for the last two kid and youngest boy is want to go to Academy. We’re hoping for a scholarship.’  
‘Know what you mean. We got three kids on crew and they’re doin good in their level exams.’  
‘Emma’s not innnerested in Academy though. She wants to be a plot like her daddy.’  
‘I thought that lil gal was your pilot?’  
’Now. My husband passed for our girl was born.’  
‘None of us are dead while our names are spoken.’  
Zoe was silent.


End file.
